Fallen Matriarch
by Vincent von Dreyfus
Summary: Sequel to "Rising Puppetmaster." Link has come a long way from the Lost Woods. In the accursed Haunted Wasteland, however, he must come to face his unknown past once and for all. With all of Hyrule hanging in the balance, can he trump Ganon's own mother?
1. The Fortress

**A Note from the Author:** Welcome to those of you who have followed the series and those of you who are just jumping in. This is the fifth and final installment of the series of _Ocarina of Time_ novelizations in which I take the original story and give it depth, drama, excitement, and purpose. Like the others in the series (which I know call the _Dark Mind_ series), Fallen Matriarch will be guarunteed to give you exciting battles, deep psychological drama, and a sense of purpose that _Ocarina of Time_ never gave us. If you have not read the rest of the series, I'd recommend doing so. There is one for every sage (sans Rauru): Phantom Destiny (Saria), Dragon's Duet (Darunia), Arctic Succession (Ruto), and Rising Puppetmaster (Impa). Though each story is made so that it can be stand-alone, to avoid spoilers I'd recommend starting with Phantom Destiny.

Anyway, this opening part will be a bit short compared to others--but fear not, good things are already brewing in Part II.

Thank you for taking the time to read this story, and reviews are both welcome and appreciated. So please review! I promise to read every one!

Zelda stuff (c) Nintendo, Capcom  
Original stuff (c) Me

* * *

**Part I ~ The Fortress**

The darkness of the night was a menacing reminder of the horrors I had experienced a mere 24 hours ago. Needless to say, it was a comfort to be beside a fire once again, its angelic light scaring away the monsters of Hyrule Field and the dangers they brought with them. Around the campfire, one person was asleep, while the other one fed the fire. The sleeping person was Sheik, a mysterious man who claimed to be a Sheikah, a virtually extinct race of people from the northeastern part of the country. He was not really a Sheikah, though, for his mentor, the awake person, was the last of them. Impa was the Sage of Shadow, whom had joined me in my venture into the House of the Dead last night. She was tall and muscular, battle-hardened and imposing, yet she had a heart of gold and a memory full of sacrifice. Impa had used to be Princess Zelda's au pair, but since Ganondorf took over the princess has gone into hiding. Impa also used to be mayor of Kakariko Village, the last remaining Sheikah settlement, but has left it to the Hylians now residing in it. I used to travel alone, but Sheik and Impa now insist they join me on my final venture.

My name is Link. Long ago, I used to hang my head in shame whenever I heard the name. Now it was one I took with pride, for it carried a meaning now: "Hero of Time." I entered this world not knowing who I was, fooled into believing myself a Kokiri outcast. I didn't know my parents, my heritage, even why it was that unlike any other Kokiri I came to exist right in front of the God of Earth, the Great Deku Tree. Fairyless, I was picked on by the other Kokiri and found asylum only in a Kokiri girl named Saria. We grew into the closest friends that could ever exist, destined to fall in love and be together for the rest of time; but that was all a façade. I know who I am now, and it was thanks to Saria and a new Deku Tree that I discovered it. I am a Hylian; not a Kokiri, not a Goron, nor Zora, nor Gerudo, but a Hylian. My whole life in Kokiri Forest was suddenly made clear; why I didn't have a fairy until Navi came along, why the old Deku Tree treated me differently, why after a seven year coma I found myself an adult when I should have kept the body of a child... But this knowledge almost cost me Saria's heart, until we agreed we could be together no matter what race we were. On the other hand, though, a glaring question haunted me afterward--why? If I'm a Hylian, then why would I appear alone in Kokiri Forest? Why didn't the Deku Tree turn me into a Skull Kid? And who were my parents? All of these questions have gone unanswered. So I'm just Link, the Hylian man with the mind of a Kokiri boy.

My heritage has become unimportant in my travels. I thought my discoveries were done when I left Saria, the newly awakened Sage of Forest, in the Forest Temple. I traveled Hyrule seeking out the other Sages while I purified sacred Temples of Power from the evil Ganondorf's grasp. Darunia and I saved Death Mountain from destruction; with the help of Sheik and Princess Ruto I avenged the massacred Zoras; and Impa and I lifted a dark curtain from Kakariko. I had to fight terrible creatures in my journey: Ganon's skeletal phantom in the Forest Temple, the ancient dragon Volvagia in the Fire Temple, the psychopathic monster Lady Morpha in the Water Temple, and the god-like demon Bongo Bongo in the Shadow Temple. I was too busy to question my past, and merely drove forward on my mission to rid Hyrule of Ganondorf. But now, as the denouement to my adventure loomed on the horizon, I found myself asking those same old questions all over again. Was I, too, in the same situation as Ruto and Impa? Was there now family to call my own?

But I was done in Hyrule. I'd covered everywhere in the entire kingdom but the Snowpeak Mountains, and Sheik was positive that the Wind Temple there was untouched by Ganondorf's men. The only temple still controlled by Ganon was to the northwest, outside Hyrule's borders and in a vast desert known only to Hylians as the Haunted Wasteland. The wasteland was ruled by Ganon's own people, the Gerudo, and housed the greatest threat I'd be up against yet. It would be a week or two before I'd come face-to-face with it, but already just thinking about the Kingdom of Arbiterus make me shiver over events to come.

Fortunately, I wouldn't be alone this time. Impa, no longer tied to the well-being of her village, joined me, and Sheik was going to see to it that his master didn't go alone. The two of them were an inseparable pair. Impa was the last of the Sheikah, a race of tall Hylian-like people who swore themselves to the guardianship of the underworld, not to mention the Hylian Crown. Though they flourished in the valley of Kakariko for many years, the race was brought to an untimely end when they were wiped out in the Great Civil War. Impa is all that remains. Sheik, on the other hand, is a mystery. I don't know who he is, where he comes from, or why he behaves like a woman sometimes, but he is Impa's loyal pupil all the same. Before I woke from my coma, Sheik was leading the revolution against Ganondorf.

After two days and two nights, we found ourselves at an old gatehouse, the border between the kingdom of Hyrule and the kingdom of Arbiterus. Seven years ago I had a brief visit to the border, and could remember its proud look, a mixture of Gerudo and Hylian architecture, guarded on one side by Gerudo women and on the other by Hylian soldiers. Those days were long gone; now that the Dragmires were in charge of Hyrule, the need for a gatehouse was obsolete. It had been the first thing torn down when the Gerudo invaded, and now it lay in ruins. We crossed it without passports, or anything of the sort, and as we entered the Gerudo Valley, "Gateway to the Desert," we looked back with mild longing. All that we knew was vanishing behind us as we crammed on top of poor Epona, and in front of us was unknown territory. Not even Impa, who knew the entire kingdom of Hyrule, knew what lay in wait in the land of the Gerudo.

The Gerudo were a people I had only heard about in fairy tales the Know-It-All Brothers used to tell. Bathed in mystery, they were an all-female race that lived in the desert outside Hyrule. Once every 100 years a male Gerudo would be born, and would automatically become destined to rule the desert people until his death—that man was Ganondorf. The rest of the Gerudo were known to be beautiful in every way, and were notorious for being able to seduce almost any Hylian man into bearing them a child—before discarding the new father. They only entered Hyrule to find husbands, and so their own world was left to speculation. It didn't take a lot to guess the Hylians despised the Gerudo; the Gerudo and Gorons had fought the Hylians and Zoras during the Great Civil War, and the Gerudo were responsible for the destruction of the Sheikah. The Hylian government was always distrustful of the neighboring kingdom, and it was perhaps out of these bad relations that Ganondorf's rise to power was made possible. With the exception of Ganondorf, I had never seen a Gerudo with my own eyes. My mind wandered to fantasizing about them, and trying to imagine how beautiful they truly were. It is a known fact that that which remains a mystery is always the most alluring.

The defeat of Bongo Bongo released me from a curse that had been controlling me since I awoke from my coma. Now, for the first time, I saw Ganondorf's Hyrule clearly and my actions were my own. I felt a fluidity in my movements that I hadn't experienced for ages. It was like a weight being lifted off my shoulders; I could have flown! Despite our situation, having crossed enemy lines and on our way to the desert people's outpost of Gerudo Fortress, I was in high spirits. The strange curse of Bongo Bongo had kept me in the gloom, but now my lips struggled to keep themselves from smiling. Everything would be alright, I told myself. Sure, the Gerudo were a powerful race, but I'd survived so many struggles—and Farore was watching me and Nayru was blessing me, so I figured perhaps I _would_ succeed in the end. I'd probably be stressed and anxious later, so why not be happy now?

Epona walked so slow, having to hold the weight of our supplies, Impa, Sheik, and myself, that I gave her some relief and hopped off her chestnut back, opting to walk alongside her. The dusty brown sand crunched softly under my boots, but didn't make a sound under Epona's hooves. We traveled in relative solitude; there wasn't anything to be seen but desert plants, copper-red canyon walls, and the occasional vulture above our heads. Not a Gerudo in sight; they were never a very large race, so I assumed most of those not in Gerudo Fortress now took residence in Ganon's Castle. The sun glared down onto the valley, forcing us to seek shade whenever possible. I wished there was something I could use to shade my eyes, but my hands were full leading Epona and grasping the of my sword in case of attack.

The valley was so quiet that I resolutely decided some conversation was in order. "So," I opened, clearing my throat and startling Sheik with the sudden noise, "whatever happened to the princess, Impa?"

"The princess is in hiding, Hero of Time," Impa answered, her words poetic and wise as always, never missing a beat yet always soft-spoken and calm. "I know your mind and soul would love to partake in a meeting with her highness, but I cannot reveal her location at this time. The Gerudo have ears everywhere, and it would be very inconvenient for us if Ganondorf were to learn where the princess hides. She bears something he wants, and he will stop at nothing to capture her if he finds her. I apologize for my secrecy, but it is my duty as her guardian to protect her."

"Alright, fair enough," I shrugged. "I wouldn't mind seeing her again, though." I didn't fancy "dear" Princess Zelda—Saria was where my heart lied—but the princess was one of those fair maiden types that you never wanted to see only once. Her voice, as I recall, was annoying, and she was overly mischievous, but she got me into this mess, and that was more than an invitation for us to meet again.

"She's in good health, though," Sheik spoke up suddenly from behind Impa. "And I'm sure that wherever she is, she's thinking about you. I think you two will meet sooner or later, actually. All you need is that Spirit Medallion, I'd warrant." Sheik at one time spoke only in riddles, and seemed to only appear when I needed to learn a song, but these days I saw him almost on a daily basis and he had dropped his poetry (probably learned from Impa) for more casual talk. I found him quite annoying at first—no less than dear Princess Zelda—but the consistency of his appearances led to me finding comfort in his presence, even if he was kinda girly now and then.

"What were you like when you were young, Impa?" I questioned, eager to keep the merry talk going.

Impa chuckled quietly. "Ah, those were the days, young hero. There is no childhood like a Sheikah childhood. We were taught from an early age how to fight, for we are warriors always, but the lessons were so fun that we thought them games. Kakariko blossomed with many an infant, and my friends and I would make it our duty every day to make sure all the babies were alright. Sometimes we'd pretend to be Gorons, and go scare our boyfriends while they followed their fathers' footsteps and paced the graveyard. I must remind you, these were the years leading up to the War, so we did not think highly of Gorons.

"I was a rebel amongst my peers, though, and would never do what my parents told me to do. If my father said, 'Go to the Windfall Market and buy some bread,' I'd go all the way to Hyrule Bazaar—before it was ever so grand as to be called a Castle Town—and fetch him some jam instead. I was punished often, I assure you, but one's mind pays little attention to pain when it is enjoying itself." Impa smiled and paused for a moment to enjoy the memories. Her smile vanished shortly after like a barnacle popping back into its shell. "Then the War began. We weren't allowed to go running out of Kakariko Village any more. Every day, the messengers would come back with news that some village or another had fallen to the Gorons, or that the Zoras and Hylians were being pushed back by the Gerudo. Time knew no darker an age. As soon as I was old enough, I was sent to the Snowpeak Mountains to fight for the Hylian crown against the Gerudo's highest-ranking army. In the shadow of the Wind Temple I fought, and I won, but it was a terrible sight to see the Sheikah and Hylians being slain all around me. When the war met its end, I did not know I was the last of my kind until Hyrule Castle summoned me and I heard the death count." She clenched her fists around Epona's rein. "I do not care if there are a thousand Gerudo; I shall never forgive them for what they did. Before the blood has dried my people shall be avenged."

-

Eventually we came upon a rickety, dusty, old sign. The words on it were in some sort of language I had never seen before—it certainly wasn't Hylian. "Does anybody know what language this is?" I asked the others. "I can't read this sign."

Sheik took one look and shrugged, but Impa, after examining it closely from Epona's back, leaned back and exhaled loudly. "Those accursed words are in Gerudia, the language of the Gerudo. I can speak but a little of it—the sign is warning us that the Gerudo Fortress lurks ahead. I recommend we travel on foot from here on out."

We left Epona in a small cave near the sign, though I wouldn't leave her until I was sure that she'd be out of sight in case the wrong kind of people passed by. Impa led the way; she'd been the only one of the three of us who had ever fought Gerudo warriors before, so we decided it would be safest to have her in front. Impa insisted that Sheik stay next to her, so I wound up taking up the rear. We kept our steps silent, doing the best we could not to make a sound, and we hid in the shadows whenever we could. There was nobody to be seen, but we attributed that to the fact that the fortress was also out of sight. It would be bad news if we were caught.

At last, the Gerudo Fortress came into view. It was dustier than the ground, and blended in with the canyon walls behind it. The large outpost stood at the edge of the Gerudo Valley, and looked out at the Haunted Wasteland through a giant wooden gate. A pile of crates met us about half a mile from the fortress, and despite the distance Impa was insistent that we dive behind it. "The Gerudo boast the greatest guards of all the three kingdoms," Impa whispered as soon as we were in the shadow of the crates. "Their eyes are like those of an eagle's—even better, some say. They can spot a pin drop half a mile away; it is only natural then that even at this distance we are in danger of being seen."

"Then what do you recommend we do?" Sheik asked, peering nervously through a hole in one of the crates at the fortress. "If we proceed any farther we'll be sure to be seen."

Impa was silent for a moment, looking around for some sort of answer. Then she glanced up. "We must scale the canyon wall; we'll have to come down on them."

"And why are we invading their outpost?" I groaned, looking through the crates at the massive quantity of guards patrolling the fortress, visible even from here.

"See that gate?" Sheik answered, speaking of the gate to the Haunted Wasteland. "We need to get through that gate to get to the Spirit Temple, and there is no possible way of getting through there unless somebody opens it for us."

"The Gerudo value honor over everything else," Impa explained. "If we get the key to that gate, and can defeat the gatekeeper in battle, she will let us through. It is impossible to cross into the desert without being seen, especially when we must raise such a large fence, so without assistance from the inside our task will be impossible."

I shook my head in dismay. "This just keeps sounding harder and harder. Okay, so we come down on the fortress from above—what then? What's our plan?"

"Considering we manage to get that far, we must search the fortress for the gate key. They don't hold it at the gate; as a matter of security, they keep the key and the gate separate. It sounds like an impossible task, but I am sure it can be done." I made another groan. "Then we must get out of the fortress and make it to the gatekeeper unseen. That is the easy part; you are traveling with a Sheikah and her pupil—our greatest skill is remaining invisible from probing eyes."

"All the same..." I moaned with a sigh, "forgive me if I'm not reassured this isn't going to be a complete failure."

"Perk up," Impa smiled. "I am sure we'll succeed. Now come on, let's go."

-

Believe me, there is no stress like one experiences trying to break into the Gerudo Fortress. The sun was nearing the horizon by the time we got in, which was to our advantage: it would be harder to see us escape at night. Nonetheless, we had to keep completely silent, for even the slightest sound could have alerted the Gerudo to our presence. They were the greatest guards in the entire world—and _we_ were trying to break into their _stronghold_.

In the blood-red light of the dying sun we crept down a ladder on the roof and into the fortress. Despite being so close to the desert the air was chilly, and a powerful breeze pierced my Zora Tunic and made me shiver. It was like being at the top of a mountain, where strong winds are inevitable and are just a natural occurrence. As I took one last look before descending the ladder, scanning the unfamiliar terrain stretching out in every direction, I already felt miles away from home. This was it: there was no turning back now.

The moment we slipped into the torch-lit hall Impa yanked Sheik and I behind another pile of crates. Indicating with a finger on her lips for us to be silent, she gestured towards something beyond the crates. Peeking through a hole in the pile, I saw my first Gerudo: a gorgeous siren with an orange-tan face as crisp as a delicate fire, long, flowing red hair to match, and lips as white as snow. She was dressed in very little—only a small, semi-transparent purple bra and long, silk pants that were equally-translucent. Her waist was skinny, her breasts abnormally large, and her face seductive. It was impossible to take my eyes off her; as with Ruto, I truly preferred women who dressed more modestly, yet the appearance of the guard tapped into the deepest, most primitive of all sexual desires and brought them forth. It was all a strangely pleasant reminder that I was no longer a Kokiri boy, and I stared at the guard with an undeniable infatuation.

It was Sheik's hand that seized my scalp and tugged it away from the peephole and back into reality. She gave me the most distinctive "Grow up" expression, then released me. I suppose women didn't really have the same response to the Gerudo.

We sat there for what felt the longest hour. It was an hour, that much I was sure, but Impa had insisted we stay put that entire time. Later she would explain her actions in the fortress; it is for that reason that I know why we stayed, for I was unable to see over the crates for the rest of the evening. Apparently, the Gerudo were alerted that somebody had been seen in the outskirts of the fortress, and were on high alert. This was a known back entrance to the fortress, so they had positioned a guard to stand there for one hour. Impa's strong sense of smell and touch alerted her to the presence of guards before they came, so she was able to search for cover before we were spotted. As the first guard finally left her post we dove into the inner fortress, but it would not be until daybreak that we'd make our way out.

I had been used to acting on my own accord throughout all these adventures; here, however, I was merely a subordinate, a soldier working for somebody greater. Impa was our leader inside the fortress, and nobody questioned her role. She led the way, found us our hiding spots, showed me how I could use my bow to fire an arrow in _just the right spot_ to kill a guard without alerting the others—she was the mastermind of this endeavor. Somehow, though, it just felt right. This was her time to shine—for too long she had to sacrifice her race's passion for war and play docile, but now she had her chance to finally enact revenge on the Gerudo for slaughtering her people. Sheik and I obeyed every word, every gesture, out of respect and a group understanding that without the stealth of a Sheikah we'd never see the light of day again.

We searched every room, every nook, and every cranny, but we could not find the key to the desert gate. Sheik was beginning to grow frustrated, and I could visibly see his impatience when he yanked my bow from me on one occasion and launched it at many a guard without any remorse to speak of. He pouted like a little girl—but he arched like a trained warrior.

We soon found ourselves backtracking to some rooms and searching again, racing against time before another Gerudo guard entered the corridor, and making sure we had places to hide if we ran out of time. The Gerudo had weapons we had never seen before—weapons that could fire strange metal balls that pierced the armor Hylian Soldiers wore, and had swords put on long wooden sticks so that they could sword fight without getting close to their enemies. Sneaking through their weapons storage was like taking a step forward in time. The Gerudo themselves lingered in rooms for the longest of times, never speaking a word, and though many were barefoot, some wore curly shoes that didn't make a single sound on stone nor carpet. It was for this reason why we never relied on our sense of hearing. The eyes of the Gerudo were as sharp as a hawk's, and they were able to tell when there was an additional presence in a room. My Zora Tunic came in handy, because I found myself having to hold my breath for the longest time, which was entirely possible when hiding in an urn full of water. Sheik and Impa were masters of disguise, and I found myself wishing I didn't always have to be the one hiding in the big water jug.

Finally, though, we found it: true to Gerudo security, the key was in the most unlikely of places. They had decided that to place the key under high security, or to put it in a special place of its own, would have been disastrous—therefore, it was put in the most insignificant place in the entire fortress. We found the key in the dustiest crack in the dustiest corner in the dustiest room. It probably would have remained unfound if we hadn't had to jam ourselves into that corner to avoid detection when a Gerudo burst into the room unannounced. The key itself was dusty _and_ dust-colored, and so unremarkable in appearance, that I myself had doubts that it was the key we wanted. But one look at the key and Impa knew it was the right one.

"Notice how it is worn in some places," she said as soon as we were in a place where we could talk. "The fortress sees many sandstorms. This key has seen many strong winds and sand; that is how I can tell that it is for something outside, right by the desert."

"That's amazing that you can do that," I exclaimed.

"I am not Zelda's au pair for nothing," Impa beamed.

Leaving the fortress was no easier than entering it, and we had to continue to hide and avoid capture for another three hours. It was almost a labyrinth on the inside, and often we weren't even sure where we were. But then, all of the sudden, we appeared out along a narrow ledge on the outside of the fortress. There was only a faint light in the air—the sun was nearing the horizon, but it had yet to show its face. Many glaring spotlights shone on the sandy ground beneath the ledge, searching for any intruders who thought the night would bring them cover. "We must be careful not to drop," Impa whispered sharply. "If any of us go down there, we will be doomed for destruction." Sheik and I nodded. The ledge made its way along the edge of the mesa towards a gigantic portcullis; beyond the gate was nothing but desert. If we kept on the ledge, we probably would make it to the gate unhindered. The problem, of course, was managing to open the portcullis without anybody noticing—how nobody would, none of us knew.

We were going along just fine for a while, when I suddenly heard a wobbly old scream from down below. I glanced down just in time to see somebody in a cloak being shoved around on the dirt by a trio of Gerudo guards. "You like that, old hag?" one of them snickered.

"Please stop," the old lady pleaded. "I'm only a defenseless old woman, I mean no harm, please leave me be!"

"Silence!" The Gerudo who spoke kicked her to the ground.

Sheik noticed my intent expression. "Link, we have to keep going," he murmured.

"I... Just wait, I have to help her," I whispered back.

"Hero of Time, your mind is wandering!" Impa hissed. "If you drop from the heavens, all the world will know your name! We must continue."

We kept inching across the ledge, but after a few seconds I stopped again. The lady was sobbing. "I... Impa, I _have_ to save her!" I protested. "I can't just let her—"

"—and then what, Hero of Time? What will you do when they see _you_?"

"I'll... I'll..."

"Link, you can't," Sheik pleaded. "If you help her you'll give us all away! We're so close to the gate..."

"But I—"

"No buts!" Impa interrupted, her patience thinning. "We can't have you jeopardizing our mission!"

"I'm the Hero of Time!" I insisted. "_Hero_! It's my duty to save her, just like it is your duty to ensure Zelda is safe! Can't you understand?"

"Link, I order you to—"

But I didn't listen. It was my responsibility as a hero to save those who needed saving, and as the old lady cried again I knew what I had to do. Perhaps it was stupid of me. Against everybody's wishes, I broke from Impa and Sheik's grasps and jumped down from the ledge, straight onto the ray of a spotlight. A loud, blaring noise suddenly erupted from somewhere nearby, and the whole fortress came to life. I couldn't waste any time—if I was found and apprehended where I was, Impa and Sheik would be seen too. I bolted from where I landed and ran to the Gerudo and the old lady. She was bent over, sobbing on the ground, and the Gerudo had turned their attention onto me. "Are you sure you want to do this?" Navi whispered into my ear. I nodded. "Okay, then. Just remember, the Gerudo don't fight like people do in Hyrule. Be prepared for anything."

As I approached the group, the Gerudo closest to me pulled out a curved sword, which if memory served was called a scimitar. "You're pretty brave, for a man," the Gerudo growled, her voice as heavenly as the goddesses and as wicked as Majora at the same time. "I'll give you ten seconds to get out of here before I make you wish you were never born."

"Leave that woman alone," I ordered. "She's defenseless! You have no reason to torment her!"

"We Gerudo will do as we please, _Eastern boy_." Without another second, she suddenly pulled her arm back and hurled the scimitar towards me like an arrow.

"What the—?" I brought my sword up just in time to reflect the unexpected projectile, but it merely spun right back into her hand.

"Nice reflexes," she cooed. I could feel myself blushing, but I had no time for follies. I charged towards her, ready to stab her with my sword, but she jumped out of the way and seized another scimitar that was dug into the ground. I had never fought somebody with two swords before—this would be more difficult than I thought. "Leave him to me," the Gerudo ordered her companions. "Go see if there's any more of them." The other Gerudo nodded obediently and ran in the direction that I had come. In the back of my mind, I hoped Impa and Sheik would be okay.

The Gerudo I was fighting jumped towards me and did a somersault in the air, fanning out her arms in the end so as to slice me like an upside-down "V." I moved back just in time, though once again I was reminded that I had forgotten to get any sort of shield. My old one had been destroyed when I was fighting Lady Morpha. Many a time while I was in Kakariko, I wished I had gotten a new one. If she got too close, this Gerudo would spell my demise. There was no way I could get anywhere close to defeating her while she had that second sword.

I swung my sword at her again, but she blocked it with her two scimitars, using them like a shield. But I had tricks up my sleeve too. I jumped away from her and pulled out my longshot with my free hand. Skillfully handling it, I was able to hook it onto the hilt of one of her scimitars and pull it out of her grasp. It spiraled to the ground with a clank, taking her completely by surprise.

Taking advantage of her sudden surprise I made an attempt to charge with my sword, but she spun out of the way and nearly caught me with her sword again. I was ready this time, though—I grabbed her arm and twisted it, making her lose her balance and fall to the ground. I pulled her scimitar away from her and held it at your neck. "Go now," I ordered, "or I'll kill you."

She didn't know what to make of it, but when I backed away she scrambled to her feet and ran back to the fortress. There was an uproar from the Gerudo there, and they began swarming down towards me.

Suddenly, though, they all stopped. The whole world seemed to turn a dim white. Though I was capable of moving, the rest of the world stood completely still. "That was a good show, young swordsman," the old lady applauded. She too, it seemed, was capable of moving.

"What... What is happening?" I stuttered.

"I have merely halted the passage of time," she answered, rising from where she sat. The hood of her cloak fell down, and I saw a face so kind and sweet that it couldn't have been owned by a nicer person. She was old—that much I could discern—but she had only a few wrinkles and was otherwise youthful for her age. Her skin was the palest of white, and almost blended in with the realm around us. "It was easy," she beamed. "All you have to do is put a little 'oomph' into it. But they caught me off-guard, and I wasn't able to cast the spell. It's a bit of a long one."

I exhausted deeply. "I've never fought somebody with that much energy! Wow..."

The lady nodded. "The Gerudo take measures to ensure every guard can fight like a warrior. You had to deal with high standards! But you lived in the end. What did you say your name was?"

"Link."

"Link... Hm, I've never heard that name before... Oh, but you must excuse me. I'm wasting your time, rambling on my own like that! What were you doing by yourself in such a dangerous place like this?"

"The same can be asked to you, ma'am."

"Oh, why don't I answer first then?" She smiled so warmly that I could help but comply. "My name is Syrup—I'm a witch from Holodrum. I was taking a break from my job and decided to travel somewhere exotic, so I figured Arbiterus would be a lovely place to visit. Looks like I was wrong... They shot me out of the sky the moment they saw me, and I've been being tormented ever since!" She stretched her back, making a distinct popping sound. "But I'm alright now—thanks to you! Now it's your turn."

"I'm traveling with two others—we're trying to get into the Colossus, but we had to sneak the key to the desert out of the fortress. We were almost out, but I just _had_ to rescue you. I'm a hero—it was my responsibility!"

"Though I thank you for your kindness, I'm afraid you won't be getting out of here. They know you've arrived, and you still have to move that giant gate! There's no way you'd survive."

I looked away. "...thanks for the support..."

"However, you're quite lucky! I can help you."

My eyes rushed back to her's. "You can!?"

Syrup nodded calmly. "I can cast a spell to make them forget all about you, and not see you as you leave. How does that sound?"

I nearly jumped for joy. "That would be excellent, Syrup! Could you please?"

"Sure thing. Just give me a moment..." She turned to face all the petrified Gerudo. "Farore knows what you don't know, and Nayru has your eyes. You cannot see these three foreigners, so keep on going with your lives!" There was a flash of light, and time resumed. The Gerudo stood where they were dumbfounded for a moment, then went back to their positions. "There," Syrup smiled wiping the dust off her hands. "You are free to go to the desert."

Impa and Sheik ran up behind me. "Link, what's going on?" Sheik demanded. "The Gerudo just forgot about us all of the sudden!"

"That would be the work of me," Syrup cackled. "A thank-you for the rescue. In case you didn't know, I'm Syrup the Witch!"

"You have our gratitude, Syrup," Impa bowed.

"I must ask, though... Do you have a map of the desert?" We shook our heads. "Goodness, you've all come so unprepared! Here..." Syrup reached into her cloak's pocket and dug out a folded piece of paper. "It is a map of the eastern part of the desert. I'm sure whatever you are looking for, you shall find it there."

Impa took the paper and unfolded it. "Ah, here's what we want!" she exclaimed joyfully. "The temple is less than a week away. Thank you again, Syrup."

"No problem," she replied. "Good-bye, and good luck!"

Leaving Syrup, we crossed the fortress courtyard to the giant portcullis, which stood out like a black grid against the rising sun behind it. Impa placed the key into a small lock, and the gate raised just enough for us to pass around to the other side. "The Haunted Wasteland now lies before us," Impa explained, eying two giant boars, their backs crowned by saddles, "we shall need mounts."

I nodded. "Makes sense, but is riding a pig any different than riding a horse? I'm still learning how to ride Epona..."

"It isn't too different," Navi answered. "I can help you, Link."

"Then it's settled! Thank you, Navi." My fairy made a little curtsey on my shoulder. I briskly approached the boar, which could have cared less whether I was a Gerudo or a Hylian, and swung myself onto its back. The saddle was comfortable, and I easily prepared myself under a minute. Impa and Sheik walked up to the boar behind mine.

"Ugh!" Sheik whined with disgust. "Do I really have to ride this..._thing_? This dirty, ugly thing?"

"Come on," I groaned. "It isn't going to bite!"

"No!" Sheik stamped his foot on the ground. "I'm not going to sit atop such a filthy animal!"

Impa sighed and got herself atop the boar. "You can sit behind me," she offered. "Now come on. It is either this 'filthy' creature or the deep, treacherous sands of the desert. We shall not be stopping for hours—are you sure you want to walk the entire way?"

Sheik grimaced at the thought. He made the snottiest, girliest face I had ever seen on a guy, but submitted and (albeit delicately) got herself onto the saddle behind Impa. "When this is all done, remind me to 'thank' you all for the heavenly ride," he growled.

"Lighten up," I suggested cheerfully as I told the boar to start moving. "We just had a huge stroke of luck—don't ruin the mood. Enjoy the peace and quiet while you can, because if this temple is like any of the others, things are going to get ugly the moment we arrive."

As we set out towards the rising sun, things seemed to be on our side for once. I had a good feeling about this temple—I didn't know what was waiting for us there, but somehow I felt that we could conquer anything Ganondorf threw at us. But for now, it was time to brave the Haunted Wasteland.

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**A Note from the Author:** As you can see, I totally scrapped _Ocarina of Time_'s plotline for the fortress. It was crummy and made no sense--if Link is Gerudo Enemy #1, they shouldn't just LET him into the desert for saving five prisoners. This part is short though, and I realize it--but the other Parts are going to be long, so I figured I'd give you all a break after the impeccably long end to Rising Puppetmaster.

Please review! I promise to reply to everything you have to say! Reviews are what fuel me on! Thank you for reading, and stay tuned for the next chapter--things are going to get really good. I'm practically dying to post it even at this moment, but it isn't done yet...


	2. The Colossus

**A Note from the Author:** Took a while because I've been so busy with school and birthdays and what-not. The latter half was a bit tedious to write, just because I wanted stuff in there but couldn't come up with means to write it, so if it jumps around a bit near the end that's why. I hope you enjoy this chapter--the beginning half was especially fun to write, and I'm sure you'll love it just as much as I do.

If you read, please be sure to write a review when you are done. They are what keep me going, and I really do appreciate them!

* * *

**Part II – The Colossus**

Three kids ran around Hyrule Field, kicking and screaming with joy. It was the first day of spring, or at least the first day without snow, and therefore it was the first day of the year where children could scamper around freely without having to be bundled up and weighed down. They could jump between the rocks, chase away the Guays, pretend they were marathon runners like the one they saw every day, and could even hide behind the trees, as long as they stayed away from the Lost Woods. It wasn't too hard, though; with the exception of the Dragon Roost and Snowpeak mountain ranges, the Lost Woods was the last place in Hyrule to lose its snow, so the forest was still marked by a striking mixture of whites and greens. With such a clear marker, it was near-impossible for anybody to wander too close, and would continue to be for another week or so.

I was one of the kids. After all, it was my house where we were playing. Not many people dared live near the Lost Woods; with so many ghost stories about the haunted woodland, it was considered almost suicide to choose a location such as its outskirts. But Southern Hyrule, more commonly known as the Faron Province—"Faron" was an old (_very_ old) Hylian word meaning "otherworld," for long ago the Hylians believed that the Lost Woods and the area around it was where spirits from another world coincided with our own; these days we call an area like that a "Termina" rather than a "Faron"—was a rich, plentiful country sparsely dotted with a great variety of trees, all of which flowered in the early summer to form all colors of the rainbow. Despite the dangers of the Lost Woods nearby, the Faron Province was the perfect place for people to grow up, especially if they were folks like my parents, who wanted nothing to do with the fierce political debates in the capitol or the bizarre, sometimes disturbing stories coming out of neighboring Kakariko.

That was how it always was. My parents avoided the public as much as they could; they never told me why, and whenever I asked I was hurriedly rushed out of the room. What I could gather, though, was that they didn't want to be found by someone or another; in any case, I was always thrown into a closet whenever somebody came to the door. I was never allowed to leave Faron, and I was severely punished if I ever stepped out of sight of my parents while outside. My mother home-schooled me. My only friends were the two kids I ran around with—one was a tomboyish girl from a ranch farther north, the other the son of our only neighbor. Our house, too, was hard-to-find. It sat in the shade of two great oak trees, right on the border of the Lost Woods, in a small alcove that was hard for those who didn't know it's existence to find. Made entirely of wood, down to the very framework, it even blended in with the trees, and I probably would have had trouble finding it if it weren't for the red mailbox in front of the house.

My friends and I were pretending to be in a battle to save Hyrule. Malon, the ranch girl, was a princess who needed saving; Kafei, my neighbor, was an evil Gerudo trying to capture Malon and take over the world; and I was a lowly squire to a knight, who was unintentionally thrown into rescuing Malon and saving Hyrule from Kafei. It was all play, of course, but it was great fun.

It was nearing sunset, and I was just getting ready to give Kafei the final blow and win over Princess Malon, when somebody appeared. The person was dressed in a long, crimson cloak, which's hood draped so low over the person's head that in its shadow I could not see a face. The figure, whoever it was, merely stood there in-between two birch trees, watching us as we played, but when we were nearing completion the person began to approach us. We stopped immediately; my mom had taught me to avoid strangers as much as possible, so I started backing away. The stranger was so enigmatic, though, that I found myself quickly cemented to the grass. Malon, Kafei, and I watched the stranger warily; I don't know why, but there was just something _scary_ about the person. The person continued to draw closer, but stopped when an entire flock of crows exploded from a nearby tree and took to the air, turning a portion of the orange sky as black as night.

"What imaginative children," the person cooed. The voice was low and crackly, but distinct enough that I could assume that the stranger was indeed a woman. There was a raspiness to her voice that I didn't like; it sent shivers up my spine that felt like needles pricking my back. "Where are your parents?" she asked. We couldn't see her eyes, yet the three of us somehow knew that the question was directed solely towards me.

"I-Inside," I stammered, pointing back at my cottage. "I... I'll go get them," I offered.

"You needn't do that," the stranger answered. We scattered slowly as she walked straight through our group and away towards my house. The air seemed to get cooler, and as her presence faded away the three of us shivered in the growing darkness. Suddenly, nobody felt like playing.

Malon shuffled uncomfortably. "Hey Link?" she mumbled after a moment of silence. I acknowledged her. "I think I ought to be going home," she whispered. Without another word, she backed away slowly and departed north.

"I should probably be going too, Link," Kafei shuddered. "This breeze is freezing! I... I don't wanna get sick or anything."

I nodded. "Alright. See you later," I replied. Kafei didn't make a sound. He waved good-bye, then hustled out of the alcove towards his own home. I was left alone in the red glow of the dying sun. Eventually, I decided to head home too.

As I got closer to our house, I could hear voices yelling from inside. I couldn't tell whose voices they were, but they sounded angry and hostile. I wasn't able to understand most of what was said, but I was able to catch the words "Get out" in a deep voice that sounded like my father's. As I neared the mailbox, featureless in the crimson light, I heard the sound of an object breaking, like a vase or something. Suddenly, my mother burst out of the house. "Link, run!" she screamed, her voice so desperate and pained that I could have mistaken it for someone else's. "Run!"

I didn't question her. As soon as she was by my side she seized my hand, and together we madly dashed away from the cottage. There was suddenly a bright light behind us from something other than the sun, but I didn't dare look back. "Hurry!" my mother ordered. "Into the forest, hurry!"

-

I was shaken awake from my dream by Sheik's bandaged hands. "Come on," he asserted, "nap time's over. We need to get going; the sooner we reach the Spirit Temple, the better!" I rubbed my eyes and pulled myself up from the rock I was sleeping on. My whole body was stiff; it wasn't the most pleasant place to sleep on, but it was better than the sand.

This was our third day in the Haunted Wasteland. We had no idea how much longer it would be before we reached the temple, but as long as the map was accurate we agreed that it couldn't be more than a day or two. The Haunted Wasteland was a world unlike any I had ever dreamed, an endless expanse of burning sands, dry scrubland, and occasional mesas and pillars of rocks. The animals were few in number, but they were so large that I could have hardly imagined they'd survive in a place such as this. I saw giant mammals with noses longer than their legs, capable of seizing entire bushes and swallowing them whole. There were herds of the giant boars we rode on, migrating from one patch of food to the next, never stopping until they reached their quarry. Giant worms porpoised in and out of sand dunes, soaring through the air before drilling into the loose grains like a hot knife into butter. Kargaroks, red-and-blue scavenger birds that feasted on already-dead carcasses, circled over our heads. Once, I caught the glimpse of a bird even bigger, which Impa called a Helmaroc. She said the Helmarocs were used by the Gerudo during the Civil War to attack from the sky like flying cavalry. I shuddered to think of the same happening to us.

The mornings and evenings were characterized by dense sandstorms and dust devils, and during dawn and dusk we were forced to shelter ourselves under mesas and stone arches to protect ourselves from windburn. During the day there was little to impede us physically; however, the sun was so hot and so intense that we found ourselves smoldering. I wished I had brought along the Goron Tunic to cool me down; alas, I had left it in Lon Lon Ranch before braving the Zora Canyon. The Zora Tunic left me feeling like a fish out of water, drying up in the sun with nowhere to seek asylum.

The nights were cool, but it was also when the desert wolves came out to hunt. They were bizarre in that their skeletons covered their outsides like an insect's exoskeleton, giving them an appearance of being undead. Impa said the Gerudo called them Stalhounds. One night we were camping out in a gathering of boulders, just getting ready to sleep, when our boars attracted the attention of a pack of Stalhounds. We had to keep watch throughout the night; around 2:00 in the morning they finally decided to attack, and we fought until dawn trying to keep them from devouring our mounts.

Ghosts seemed to rise from the sand at night too. One night—the same night as I had that dream—I was just laying on a boulder, trying to get to sleep, when I saw the glow of a Poe's lantern not far away. It didn't attack us, but I watched it closely until the moment I fell asleep. I hadn't seen a Poe since the incident in the Forest Temple, and had been hoping I'd never see one again. Poes were, after all, the vile phantoms that abducted my Saria and nearly cast her to oblivion. The sight of the desert specter was a painful reminder of the trials I had faced to save her. No wonder I had such a strange dream.

It was inevitable that we'd arrive in the end, though, at the Desert Colossus. I knew what it was the moment I saw it: The Desert Colossus was a sacred land mentioned in a story about Nayru. In the story, Nayru was called to the desert by the Goddess of Sand and patron goddess of the Gerudo, Arbitra, to bring law and justice to chaos going on in the Gerudo kingdom. Arbitra lived in a walled-in oasis known as the Desert Colossus, and so it was there that Nayru met her. I'm not going to go into the rest of the story; it is told so many times that the rest is common knowledge.

But the Colossus was like a luxurious palace in the middle of nowhere. With nothing but empty, rolling sand dunes expanding for miles around it, the artistic stone walls surrounding the Colossus seemed out of place. There was no gate to open this time—we easily passed underneath a giant archway and emerged into what could only be described as a piece of paradise. Before us rested a wide, stone pathway, perfectly straight and without a single dent in its surface. Farther ahead there was an altar, like those I had seen near every temple I had been to. To either side of the path were lush, grassy fields, painted with hundreds of vibrant flowers and dotted here and there with shady palm trees, well-sculpted topiaries, and even one or two fountains, projecting crystal-clear water into the dry air and nourishing the Colossus with the moisture it needed. In each side there was a row of statues depicting what I could only assume were previous Gerudo kings, though Ganondorf was yet to appear on either row. Of course, the greatest member of the Colossus loomed before us: The finest, most luxurious and well-crafted work of art I had ever laid eyes on, which was beyond a doubt none other than the Spirit Temple. It towered before us, the only palace even remotely suited to a garden as magnificent as the Colossus. Flowery vines dangled from its windows, like a sort of hanging garden, and palm trees graced the corners of the roof. In the center of the ivory-white temple was a massive statue of a Gerudo with a snake's body where her torso ended. The turquoise tail's scales sparkled in the sunlight as the long tail coiled around the sides of the building with godly protection. The Gerudo snake-woman's hands were outstretched as if lifting something in front of her, and projected from the temple like branches from a tree. The woman wore no clothes, and the sight of the statue's large, bare breasts were an immediate reminder of the primitive seductiveness of the Gerudo. The head of the woman was even more beautiful than the Gerudo I had seen at the fortress, but her hair was covered by a snake's head, jaws open to form a sort of hood for the Gerudo's face to appear through. There was only one thing to which such a description could match: it was a statue of Arbitra, the Goddess of Sand. It was this statue, I assumed, that gave the Colossus its name.

"So, we have finally arrived," Sheik sighed with a hint of relief. "I hate to say it, but this place is amazing."

I nodded. "I can't believe we're actually _here_. Seven years ago, I never would have even considered that I'd ever actually go to the _Colossus_. This is like, the place of legends!"

"And yet it is here," Impa added darkly, "that Ganon's evil carries strongest."

"Thanks for ruining the mood," I grumbled. Sheik nodded in agreement.

It did not matter to Impa. "Time is something to be cherished, not wasted. Let us make haste, before danger lets itself be known." She dismounted her boar without another word, and Sheik and I followed suit. As I finished tying my boar up to one of the mounting posts on the side of the path, Sheik called me over to one of the statues of Gerudo kings.

"Look," she stated, directing my attention to the base of the monument, "there's a song inscribed here. Why don't you try playing it?"

I nodded and tested the song on my ocarina. There was a sudden burst of orange light, and the world seemed to vaporize in front of me. When everything fell back together, I found myself only 50 yards away from where I had been previously standing. Beneath my feet, I could see the symbol of the Spirit Temple, and the altar that bore it. "Don't worry," I called, "I'm still here!"

Impa moved to the monument to inspect it herself. "According to this," she reported, "that was the Requiem of Spirit."

"It's a relief we can warp to the Colossus," Navi chirped. "We won't have to go through that long trip ever again!" I nodded in agreement and smiled.

"Enough distractions," Impa interjected. "Let us grant the temple our presence!" She was determined to get in and out as soon as possible. I guess she wasn't comfortable being in the land of the Gerudo.

-

In great contrast to the brilliant atmosphere outside the temple, we were immediately enveloped in darkness as soon as we stepped into the entry hall. The room was dimly lit by a candle chandelier overhead, which gave the stone interior a rusty orange color that virtually emitted age. The spaceous chamber was cool and well ventilated, giving us a cherished relief from the searing sun. The chamber, however, seemed more ominous than the sight of clouds on the horizon before a storm. There was a great evil nearby, greater than we had ever experienced before, and all three of us could sense it. We had left safety behind us, and were suddenly as vulnerable as fire was to rain. A grand staircase lingered before us, and on either side sat a statue of a cobra, watching us with jagged eyes. Without a word we crept up the red carpet draping the staircase, awed by the elaborateness of the room and shuddering from the haunting feeling of being watched at the same time. But when we arrived at the top of the staircase, we found nowhere to continue. Two passages led towards the two wings of the temple; one, however, was too small for anybody but a child to fit through, while the other was blocked by a giant marble block.

Inspecting the marble block, Impa frowned. "We need Silver Gauntlets," she murmured. "It is a shame that we don't have any."

"Well what are we supposed to do, then?" Sheik and I asked almost simultaneously.

Impa locked eyes with me. "Production of Silver Gauntlets ended six years ago, and since then they were all destroyed."

I snapped my fingers. "That's it!" I cheered. Sheik and Impa were taken by complete surprise by my reaction. "Sheik, you remember the song you taught me in Kakariko? The Prelude of Light? Well, after I played it, I had to travel back in time to get the Lens of Truth." Realization came over Impa's eyes; perhaps she was beginning to understand the events at the well seven years ago. "Perhaps if I were to travel back in time again, I could find those Gauntlets and bring them back. Then we would be able to continue!"

Sheik nodded. "I...can't believe you actually went back in time, but... I don't see why it wouldn't work. You should give it a shot."

"Have caution though, Hero of Time," Impa warned. "As a child, you won't be as capable of disarming a Gerudo warrior as you were at the fortress. If you fail to return, be it by death or by detainment, Hyrule will be no less doomed to destruction than it would have been if you lost in the present. Do not drop your guard."

I nodded and smiled at my fairy. "Don't worry," I grinned. "I've got Navi to protect me." Honestly, I couldn't _wait_ to be a kid again.

-

Hyrule Castle Town, seven years in the past. The sky was blanketed in a cloud so thick and wide that nothing could be seen through it, and all the world was cast into shades of grey. An ominous wind blew across the damp ground, and my boots splashed in a puddle as I stepped down from the entryway to the Temple of Time. The world was silent and wet—it had just rained, and yet there was only more rain to come, and the clouds were merely taking a rest before falling again. All I could hear was the rustle of leaves and the haunting caws of crows overhead. This was it: I had no immediate sign, but I knew the moment I saw the temple courtyard that it would be this very day that the bloodbath of Hyrule Castle Town would begin. It hadn't happened yet, but the world was just so foreboding that it couldn't possibly have been any other day. Nobody was in the streets down in the market, and instead of a loud bustling crowd I could only make out the chatter of one or two bankers hustling down an alleyway. The stark air was as cold as early morning in late autumn, when snow is just around the corner, yet to my knowledge it was surely August. The wind suddenly picked up into a gale, and leaves swirled around my bare legs before being thrust into the rafters of the temple. It was as if autumn had come too early, and that was what gave the approaching massacre away. When I heard stories of the fall of Hyrule Castle Town, almost everybody at least mentioned how cold it was that day. For all I knew, it could have only been an hour or two before the Gerudo arrived and slaughtered everybody.

I sat there silently for a moment, resting on the grey stone of the temple's outdoor staircase. With a lonesome sigh I lay my chin on my palm and just scanned the world around me. For all I knew, this could be the last time I'd ever be in the time before Ganondorf took over. I stared longingly at the Gossip Stones standing by a small pond. The eyes of the Sheikah knew so much... Did they know the horrors which were about to curtail?

Navi let me have my peace for a while, but eventually grew impatient and hurried my mouth to the Ocarina of Time. The notes of the Requiem of Spirit resonated in the silent realm, bouncing off the walls of the Temple of Time and echoing in the empty city below, as an orange light whisked me away to the Colossus. There was hardly a difference in the oasis' appearance, despite the seven year gap. "Ganondorf probably corrupted the Spirit Temple long before he took Hyrule," I guessed aloud.

"Pretty smart, for a kid," a voice (which, I hate to say, was unbelievably sexy) snapped from behind me. Navi and I spun around to see three Gerudo guards before me, their scimitars pointed directly towards my chest. "We were told by Madame Dragmire to expect a kid and his fairy to show up," explained the Gerudo in the center. "I almost didn't believe her—but you just proved me wrong. Good job. 'Corrupt' is such a harsh word, though; I'll have you know, the Spirit Temple is uncorruptable. It will always empower the Gerudo; we need not force it." She smiled at her companions with playful glee. "I don't know what's worse: the fact that a kid managed to get into the most sacred of Gerudo lands unseen, or that the kid's a man."

The Gerudo to her left sneered both in dismay and in playfulness. "I bet he's not even fertile yet! We can't even have any fun before we kill him!" Oof, that was a disturbing thought.

"Let's kill him," the Gerudo on the right insisted. "Or should we neuter him first? Stupid man!"

"You made a big mistake coming here," the Gerudo in the center growled at me. "Now you'll have to pay the price." She charged towards me with her sword ready, but I pulled my Kokiri Sword out and countered her blade. "So you can fight!" she remarked. "I'm impressed; I didn't think you even had balls."

"Watch it," I growled, swinging my sword and just missing her stomach. "I've fought Gerudo before and won."

"Have you, now?" I dodged out of the way of her scimitar as she swung it down. Before she knew what was happening, I used my youth-like agility and jumped onto her arm. Without hesitation I slid my sword across her neck; it seemed unnecessary to go as far as decapitation, but I had to do what I had to do. Her wind pipe was snapped, and in seconds she was dead.

"You little brat, how dare you!" roared the other two Gerudo. They approached me with their swords raised, waiting for me to make the first move. Unfortunately for them, they weren't expecting a boomerang. An ever-helpful treasure I found in Jabu-Jabu's stomach, I found myself relying on the boomerang once again as I threw it towards the attackers. Its sharp edges cut through the air and it made a sharp turn, slicing through the bare backs of the guards and returning to my hand. "Too easy," I grinned. They were people too, not monsters; but I had little sympathy for anybody in Ganondorf's army. It would be these Gerudo soldiers, after all, that would massacre the people of Hyrule Town Market.

Navi fluttered down onto my shoulder, and I left the dead trio for the Spirit Temple. It was a far longer walk with my shorter legs, but we arrived there without any more trouble. It made sense, though; technically, the invasion of Hyrule had already begun, so the Gerudo army (who probably would have otherwise been patrolling the palace grounds) was already on the march towards the Hylian border.

Oh, but one _did _linger. I saw her as soon as I stepped into the temple's entry hall: a Gerudo stood at the top of the staircase, looking away from me and towards the left wing. I quietly slipped behind one of the cobra sentinels and listened. The woman was talking to herself. "This is impossible," she muttered, apparently in frustration. "How am I supposed to find those gauntlets if I can't fit?" That's the sort of thing I'd want to hear.

Acting on impulse, I ran out from my hiding place and up the stairs. "Alright," I demanded, "I want you to—"

"Whoa, there, tiger," the Gerudo snapped, flipping around and shoving her hand on my forehead. Despite her slender frame, she had such strength that I could not get any closer. "It isn't like I'm gonna neuter ya or something just because you don't yell. Save your breath!" I relaxed my muscles, albeit grudgingly. "There, see?" She took her hand off my head and let me stand up straight. "Let's try that again."

"W-Well, uh..." It was as if the Gerudo were all a part of some conspiracy to make me lose my dignity. Like the Gerudo guards she wore silk pants so thin that they were see-through and a transparent bra to match, but unlike the previous Gerudo I had seen both were colored as white as snow. The face of the woman was stern, and yet relaxed, as if her temper was so dangerous that she had no reason to worry about anything at all. Her orange-brown hands rested on her hips, and she was so tall that I think she'd fall between my height and Impa's in seven years. She had fiery red hair tied in a pony tail at a 45° angle from her jawline, but the tail was so long that its tip nearly touched the floor. Her nose was pointy to the extreme, as if (no pun intended) she were one to get nosy in any affair, completely unhindered. The piercing gaze of her eyes almost contrasted from the relaxed expression on her face, giving me the feeling I was standing before nobility. She was barefoot, and was from head-to-toe a brown, curving figure masked only slightly by the veils around her legs and chest. Even Ruto looked tame in her presence.

"Come on, out with it!" she hurried. "Yeah, I know how I look; you men are all alike, aren't you? You act like you've never seen a Gerudo before! Now quit staring and talk!"

"I-I..." I looked away and regained my posture. "I demand to hear what you know about the Silver Gauntlets! I warn you, I have killed your kind before!"

"And who are you supposed to be?" the Gerudo laughed, noticing my sword and shield. "Do you think you're a swordsman or something?"

I blushed, and could hear Navi rolling in laughter on the floor. "Um, well, I actually _am_a swordsman," I mumbled, almost inaudibly.

"What's that?" the woman burst with great amusement. Her laugh was a mixture of a cackle and a chirp, a powerful exclamation that seemed to silence any sound there was before. All the world had her attention now. Even I shrunk back in her new-found presence. "You actually believe you really _are_ one!? By Din's Fire, that's absolutely priceless! What a character!" She gave me a hard pat on the back. "Kid, I like your style, even if you _are_ a man!"

"Umm..." I really wasn't enjoying this conversation. "Who _are_ you?" I asked, hoping to change the topic.

The woman froze. She squinted down at me, carefully eying me over like I was a rat that possibly carried a disease. "You aren't working for Ganondorf, are ya, kid?" The question took me by surprise; considering my last adventure, it invoked painful memories.

"N-No," I stammered, backing away but continuing to warily look her square in the eye. Bongo Bongo didn't have a hold on me any more; this time I wasn't forced into saying the contrary.

The Gerudo laughed again. "What's the matter? You've got guts, kid. You knew I was a Gerudo, that Ganondorf was my king; and yet you had the bravery to stand up and look me in the face and tell me you weren't siding with him. I like that." Well, that wasn't expected. "Let me let you in on a secret, kid," she whispered, bending down to speak eye-to-eye with me. "I'm not working for Ganondorf either."

I blinked. "What? But he's your—"

"I know what he is! But that doesn't mean I have to like him, does it?" I shook my head dumbfoundedly. "I'm secretly working to overthrow him. He's been corrupted by evil, and therefore is unfit to rule the Gerudo. I suppose that makes us allies." I nodded awkwardly. "My name's Nabooru, Ganon's own second-in-command." I blinked. Nabooru? That name sounded distantly familiar, as if all my life I had known that name and just never remembered it. I shivered suddenly; there was something wrong, something wasn't right! Nabooru, Nabooru... There was something important about that name, I just _knew_ it! It was frustrating; somehow, my entire body was now telling me something bad was on the horizon. If only I could remember what it was...

"But if he's not around, then why the secrecy? And why haven't you just _killed_ him already; you must be in contact with him often! I mean, by Farore's Book, he's just killed our _king_!"

Nabooru looked around. "...Because." Her voice became so quiet that I had to strain to even hear a syllable. "_She_ won't let me." The wind howled outside and echoed in the temple ominously.

"Who's 'she?'" I whispered.

"Madame Dragmire, Ganondorf's mother. She's been keeping an eye on us for him since he left."

"Ganondorf's _mother_?" I shuddered.

Nabooru nodded. "She rules the Colossus; until Ganondorf came of age, she was also Queen of the Gerudo. Compared to her powers, we are helpless little worms. As long as she stands in the way, an uprising is impossible."

I nodded in understanding. Things were looking grim, to be sure, but with a deep breath I pushed the dark circumstances away into the recesses of my mind. As the Happy Mask Salesman always told me, all I needed to do was have faith. Thinking of his wise words transported me for a moment into the past, when I was living happily in the Kokiri Forest, before the Deku Tree died. Whenever we got ourselves into an adventure, Saria would always be hesitant to continue, believing the situation to be too dire, too impossible. "Let's go back," she'd insist to me, clutching my arm in what was then only a search for comfort. "There's nothing we can do, Link; we're way over our heads, let's be sensible!" Whenever she drew back, though, I always found myself growing ever more courageous. The image of Mido laughing at me and calling me a coward would relentlessly form in my mind, and I'd find myself so dreading the situation (with its added excuses for Mido to abuse me again) that there would be no better solution than to drive forward and face the threat head-on. And so at times when even Saria shrank back in fear I'd be the one who reassured my cohorts that good always prevailed, and that it would all turn out well in the end. Now, as the danger of Madame Dragmire made its presence known, it was time for me to start reassuring myself.

"But anyway, what's a kid like you doing in the middle of the desert?" Nabooru demanded. "I haven't heard of a Hylian kid making it all the way out here since...well never."

"I'm...looking for something." I thought it best not to disclose the details.

"That's perfect!" the Gerudo grinned, giving me a jab of approval in the ribs. It hurt badly. "You see, I'm looking for something too: something called the Silver Gauntlets. Somewhere in this temple, in a place off-limits even to me, there is an item capable of spelling the end of Madame Dragmire and her cronies. The only way in is by moving those Marble Blocks." She nodded towards the other end of the room. "And the only way to move them is with those Gauntlets. They are a hard-to-find treasure these days. A few months ago, Madame Dragmire ordered that most of them be destroyed. But these are a special pair, kept just in case they were ever needed. Problem is, there's a trap that prevents any Gerudo from touching them." Nabooru eyed me with intrigue. "Perhaps you could help me..."

It couldn't have been better circumstances. Ganondorf's own second-in-command was looking for the exact same thing as I was, knew where they were, and on top of it all, she needed _my_ help to get them. The only problem was securing the Gauntlets for my use instead of her's—but that problem would have to wait. I couldn't be hindered by self-serving goals right now. I had already learned that from the Shadow Temple. "I'd love to help in any way I can," I bowed. "Anything to take down Ganondorf."

"Great," Nabooru clapped, her mouth in a great grin beneath her imposing nose. "First, I need you to get me into the temple. With the invasion going on, Madame Dragmire's sealed the temple from military personnel such as myself for the time being." With a long, slender finger coarse from hard labor, Nabooru directed my attention to a small hole at the base of the nearby wall. "This part of the wall is actually a door. On the other side is the lever that opens it. I need you to crawl through that hole and to the other side so that you can open this door for me. Sound easy enough?"

I considered the hole for a moment and nodded. "No problem." Nabooru got out of the way and gave me clear passage to the little hole. Getting down on my hands and knees, I was just barely able to squeeze through the small space and around to the other side of the door. Pulling down the lever, we were all ready to get down to business. It was rebellion time.

-

Just like the Gerudo Fortress, the Spirit Temple was patrolled by an armada of well-trained Gerudo guards. Nabooru and I had to slink through the shadows like Sheikah, clinging to ledges and ducking behind statues of various desert animals to avoid capture. This time, however, there weren't just Gerudo keeping an eye on the ancient temple—living statues called Armos paced the halls, and Beamos statues cursed chambers with their deadly eyes.

"You should be careful, kid," Nabooru warned me. "If you get captured, you'll be tried in the Gerudo courts. If you were a girl, maybe you'd have a chance, but no man ever escapes a guilty verdict."

At some point early in our journey, we came out into a wide, open room dominated by another giant statue of Arbitra. The moment we slipped through the door into the chamber, Nabooru pulled me behind a large urn and silenced me. "We are in the witches' chamber," she whispered, though I hadn't any idea what she was talking about. "Don't say a word—if they hear you, we're as good as dead!"

I mentally zipped my lips and listened. There was at first silence, then I heard a faint tapping sound, like a cane pounding on stone. It grew louder. "I am growing tired of waiting, Koume," said a voice so old and ancient that it should have silenced eons ago. I had never heard the voice before, but it was so familiar that it sent shivers up every bone in my body. "We gave him so much power! Why doesn't he use it already?"

"Patience, Kotake," another voice answered, virtually identical to the first but discernably closer. "He is smart; he will only unleash the beast when he truly must. Don't forget the warning Din gave him."

"How could I? I have a better memory than you, Koume."

"Must you always bicker!? Let us focus on the war!"

"It isn't a war, Koume. The other side isn't fighting yet! But you are right." Kotake sighed like a cold winter breeze. "Is it time?"

"Not yet," Koume replied. "The army hasn't reached the border yet."

"I knew we should have sent Nabooru! She would have gotten those women there faster!"

"She would have slowed them down. She isn't as loyal as we would like, is she?"

"Hmmm... Koume, we must speak with her. Something isn't right; I think Madame Dragmire needs counsel."

"You are correct, Kotake. Let us depart."

There was a loud bang, and the voices silenced. Nabooru dragged me out from behind the urn—my legs refused to move, and I was petrified by the voices I had heard. "What's the matter, kid?" the Gerudo demanded. "Ever heard a witch before? Come on, let's go before they come back!" When I continued to be frozen, she slapped my cheek.

That seemed enough to shake some sense into me. I looked around briefly, dazed by the jolt, but regained my senses quickly. Nabooru and I raced across the room, past the giant statue of Arbitra. Her serpentine eyes seemed to follow us as we ran, and the fangs of the snake head longed to slit our necks. There was something unnatural about the statue, as if the end of the world rested on its shoulders.

As soon as we came to another hallway, Nabooru shoved me under a table as a Gerudo guard turned the corner. "Respadra, Commandire," the guard saluted in some foreign language. I couldn't understand anything they said, so I just lay my back tightly against the wall and listened. "Condra dis lespas Twinrova ervinoff. Relabro?"

Nabooru gave a disapproving look. "Troff warzno. Deen walzaz."

"...Ora." The guard bowed, turned around, and went back in the direction that she had came.

"What was that all about?" I whispered as soon as Nabooru gestured that I could come out.

"I've been missed," she answered darkly. "Let's get going, before anybody else butts into my business." She twirled around and marched towards a staircase at the end of the hallway. I obediently followed.

Somehow, we managed to find our way into a tunnel somewhere on a higher floor. It was lined entirely with brick, so ancient and old they seemed to be some of the oldest building materials in the entire temple. They looked like they could collapse any moment; a hard impact would easily crumble a wall and bring the whole hallway down. Nabooru and I kept ourselves in the center of the tunnel; though I did this out of caution for the walls, Nabooru appeared to be growing wary for a different reason. She kept searching around us, and grumbling to herself about the lack of guards. This made me even more wary, and I looked at Navi dismally in remembrance of happier times, when I didn't have to be so cautious all the time.

Finally, the long tunnel took a sharp turn to the right, and opened up into a wider hall, the antique ceiling now additionally supported by brick pillars, cracked at their bases. A large candle-lit chandelier hung at the center of the ceiling, illuminating everything in the corridor—including a black, glistening figure at the other end of the chamber. As my eyes adjusted to the added light, I came to recognize the figure as a soldier, though more heavily armored than I'd ever seen before. The soldier was seated on a brick throne of sorts, staring directly at us but not budging a fraction of an inch. The moment I saw it I jumped into an active stance and pulled out my sword. Nabooru was slower on her feet, and quickly told me to calm down. "Settle down," she instructed, "she's not going to hurt you—yet."

"What do you mean?" Navi asked inquisitively.

"She's the crème de la crème of Gerudo soldiers, an Iron Knuckle. They are the strongest infantry our kingdom has to offer."

"How is that not reason to worry!?" I snapped, trembling in my boots. "That makes her the worst possible thing to run into!"

Nabooru shook her head. "There's far worse in this temple," she retorted coldly. She swung one of her two scimitars as a warm-up. "Iron Knuckles never, _ever_ make the first move. She will not attack until we do, but we are trapped here until somebody dies. That is the most foul of temple traps—these halls are death chambers: Those who enter cannot leave until a person's blood is smeared on the door."

I gulped. "So we're going to have to kill her, then?"

The Gerudo nodded. "And in doing so, I will have committed identifiable treason against my nation. My fate shall be sealed, probably; but perhaps if you got ahold of those gauntlets, then in a few years you'd be big enough to do what I've set out to do."

"Don't talk like that; let's just take care of this soldier before something worse happens."

We approached the Iron Knuckle slowly, and she regarded our presence with mild intrigue. "Nabooru?" she remarked, eying the Commander with a mixture of surprise and mirth. "So, you've turned traitor? I never would have thought somebody with such a high rank such as you would stoop so low. Nor that you'd turn against us and enlist the help of a _man_. I'm a bit disappointed."

"The Gerudo have been corrupted by Madame Dragmire. It is my duty to set them free."

"That depends on your definition of corrupted, Nabooru. You shouldn't have tried to mess with us; we are too powerful. She'll be sure to hear about your little spar with me, and mark my words, you'll regret turning your back on the Great Ganondorf."

"Enough!" Nabooru swung her scimitar at the shiny armor covering the Iron Knuckle, and in mere milliseconds after the sword bounced off, the soldier jumped from her seat and pulled back a massive axe that had previously been resting at her side. I had hardly time to notice it before Nabooru pulled me away from the deadly weapon, which soared down through the air and crashed into the brick floor with such force that it dug a hole in the surface. The Iron Knuckle had to pull the axe out.

"By Din's Dance, she's powerful!" I exclaimed.

"What did you expect? A man or something?" Nabooru smirked. Her expression focused in on the Iron Knuckle. "Now keep on your toes, kid. She's slow, but one hit from that axe and you're more than dead—your bones will be shattered into little bitty pieces! I hope you can fight with that little knife of your's."

"It's a sword," I corrected. "I'll be careful; make sure you watch yourself!"

"Don't worry about me; I don't have much time left anyway." The axe swung dangerously close to Nabooru's chest, and she narrowly got out of the way. "I can't seem to get close to her! You got anything helpful, kid?" I nodded. "In that case, I'll keep her busy."

Navi and I hustled out of the way of another axe swing, and distanced ourselves from the soldier, angling ourselves from behind her back. I quickly ran through my head all the projectile weapons I had. My slingshot would be a waste of time, my boomerang would probably bounce off the armor... But I did have bombs! I dug into the satchel of bombs on my belt and pulled out a small blue orb full to the brim with gunpowder straight from Death Mountain. "Nabooru, on my call, get as far away from her as you can!"

Peering around the Iron Knuckle, the Gerudo saw me lighting the bomb. Her eyes widened a little. "Dang, you've got guts, kid! Go for it!"

The fuse was lit! "One... Two... Three... Go!" Nabooru ran from the Iron Knuckle as fast as she could, and the soldier turned around just in time for my bomb to land just a few inches from her. The explosion seemed to shake the whole room despite its relatively small size, and a pillar toppled over nearby. The Iron Knuckle cried out in pain, and when the smoke cleared the slow-going soldier's armor was burnt and bent in some places.

"You're going to wish you hadn't done that, kid," she growled threateningly. The Iron Knuckle approached me with her axe back, ready to deal some revenge. Nabooru took advantage of the instant and charged forward. With agility only a Sheikah could top, the Commander jumped into the air and landed on the Iron Knuckle's back, plunging both of her scimitars into the soldier in-between the plates of armor. The Iron Knuckle screamed in pain, and squirts of blood bounced out of her back as Nabooru dug her blades deeper. It was mere seconds more before the knight was stone dead.

Nabooru and I stood bent over for a moment, catching our breath. "See? That wasn't too bad," the Gerudo grinned. Her smile faded almost instantaneously, and in her eyes I saw the slightest glimmer of fear. She looked down at the blood masking her sword blades. "It's done. I've committed a clear act of treason; we must hurry before those horrible hags show up. An Iron Knuckle I can fight, but I have no chance against those witches."

"But where are we supposed to go now?" Navi panted, fluttering down to rest on top of my head.

Nabooru indicated towards the wall behind the Iron Knuckle's chair. "That wall is a door; this soldier's blood will open it. From the information I've gathered, the Silver Gauntlets are on the other side."

"Finally!" I exclaimed.

Nabooru straightened her back and began moving towards the wall. "Don't drop your guard—we're not out of the desert yet." I watched as she observed the wall for a moment, then dabbed at the blood on her scimitar with a finger and rubbed the finger against the wall. A large fracture appeared on the center of the wall, and all of the sudden all the bricks dissolved, revealing the Desert Colossus behind it.

"Where are we?" I gasped.

"We are just beneath the right hand of Arbitra's statue," Nabooru explained. "I hope you're good at acrobatics."

I didn't understand what she meant until I joined her at the edge of the chamber. We were a story or two above the oasis of the Desert Colossus, almost pitch-black in the dark of night, and it was almost a straight drop from where we stood to the hard courtyard below. To our side, though, was a small brick, far sturdier than the ones surrounding us inside, jutting out from the exterior wall. Looking up, I could see the outline of the back of Arbitra's hand, illuminated by the moonlight.

Nabooru was intent on getting atop the Goddess of Sand's hand, and the only way of doing so, it seemed, was via that small brick. By balancing atop that brick, it was possible to jump onto another one, and then another, until she reached a small platform. "Come on!" she ushered me. I couldn't believe how much my sense of balance evaporated the moment I jumped onto the first brick. It felt like the slightest breeze would make me lose my center of gravity and plummet to an untimely death. But somehow—I attribute it to adrenaline, but who knows, it might have been my own skill—I managed to get up to the platform Nabooru stood on. It was another great leap onto the wrist of the statue, one that I almost missed. Though Nabooru landed on the wrist with ease, I missed the landing, and quickly found myself just barely grasping its edge with my fingertips.

"Quick, pull me up!" I cried.

"Alright, quit whining," Nabooru snapped. With great strength, the slender woman seized both of my wrists and yanked me up and onto the statue. Arbitra's palm was open, and in the light of the moon the three of us were able to make out a large treasure chest in its center. "Quick, open the treasure chest!" the Gerudo ordered. "There's a spell on it that prevents me from being able to touch the lid."

"Okay," I submitted. I stumbled across the wobbly hand towards the chest and opened it with ease. All I could see inside the wooden casket was a single pair of gloves, their tops coated with silver metal decorated with the symbol of Din, the Goddess of Power.

"...Greetings." Mere seconds after I lifted the Silver Gauntlets from the chest, a phantomly, crackly, old voice made itself known no more than a few feet away. I snapped my head up, every nerve in my body suddenly ensnared with terror, only to discover two antique witches floating a little ways away from the statue's hand, their eyes directly focused on Nabooru and I. "I see you've been doing a little treasure hunting," the one on the left inferred with a disapproving tone clinging to her voice.

"Treasure hunting is against the rules, Koume," the right one muttered in a low, icy echo.

"Correct, Kotake," the left one nodded, her eyes like disappointed flames waiting to burn their betrayer.

The right one looked back and forth between Nabooru and I. "Who should we punish first?" she crooned, scratching her dry chin with a hand so bony it looked like a skeleton's. "The boy, or our dear Commander Nabooru?"

The left one pointed straight at Nabooru's head, her fingernails so long they were like Wolfos claws. "Madame Dragmire won't be pleased, Kotake, if there are traitors in our midst. The woman should be punished!"

The right one cackled. "Indeed, she should!"

"Who are you?" I demanded, gripping the Gauntlets tightly, though my question was only a raspy stutter.

"Our name is of no importance to the likes of _men_," they answered simultaneously with ferocious resolve. "All that matters is that we are the guardians of Madame Dragmire's palace, and that you two are in serious trouble!"

"You can't fool me!" Nabooru retaliated. "I know who you two really are! You're—"

"Uh oh, Koume," the right one interrupted. Nabooru's throat cracked and failed her suddenly, and though she probed it with her hands with all her might, no sound would come from her mouth whenever she tried to talk.

"Uh oh, Kotake," the left one repeated.

"It seems we shall need to brainwash her, Koume."

"It seems so, Kotake."

As I looked from the witches to Nabooru, I saw a look of utter horror glazed on her pupiless eyes, fingers scrambling over her face as its features began to melt. Right before my eyes, she began to turn into liquid, seeping into the fingertip of the statue that she stood on. I probably would have remained cemented to where I stood, incapable of doing anything to save her but unable to refuse her audience, if she hadn't with one last act of desperation gestured for me to flee before I met the same fate.

The witches were so focused on Nabooru that they didn't notice me seizing my Ocarina of Time and playing the Prelude of Light. Before they knew what was happening, I was gone, and with me, the Silver Gauntlets.

* * *

**A Note from the Author:** From personal experience, both from Fallen Matriarch and from the dream segment in Phantom Destiny, I can testify that Koume and Kotake are very fun to write dialogue for. I hope you enjoyed the chapter; like Chapter One it moves rather slow compared to previous stories, but I'm hoping to create a sort of build-up effect (or at least I say so; as I mentioned, there were several scenes in the Spirit Temple I meant to include but could not find means to write, so I suppose the slowness was more unintentional than intentional).

Inspiration for the Spirit Temple included Agrabah from Disney's _Aladdin_ and the Ghana and Japan levels from _Tomb Raider: Legends_. It's supposed to have a very middle-eastern feel to it, like something out of Arabian Nights.

Please review! It's very much appreciated, and I promise to respond to every review! Thanks for reading this chapter; stay in-tuned for Part III!


	3. The Mirror

**A Note from the Author:** Finally! It feels like ages since I posted Part II. There's isn't much for me to say about Part III, except that it may jump around a bit because I actually wrote some of it while Part I was still in the works, then some while Part II was going, then the rest a few days each week, piece by piece, so I can't guarantee it to flow wonderfully. I do believe you shall enjoy it all the same, though!

Once you've finished reading, please write me a review; I need them to survive!

* * *

**Part III ~ The Mirror**

"Come on, Saria! Let's check under here!"

"Hmm... Doesn't look like anybody's been here for a long time."

"Darn... Where could he be?"

"Link, we've checked all over the village. You don't think he tried hiding in the woods again, do you?"

"I hope not. If he got lost again, I swear I'll kill him when I find him."

"Link, you know this is serious. He could get hurt, sneaking around in the woods like that."

"Should we go get him?"

"It would be best if we did. After all, it is our fault for having him hide in the first place. And hide-and-seek is never fun if you decide not to seek the hider."

I nodded. It was late autumn, and the Kokiri Forest was so cold and nippy that I could have sworn winter was here already. Saria, myself, and a Kokiri named Makar were playing hide-and-seek in and out of the piles of leaves collecting on the ground. I had found Saria, dressed in a pine-green sweater and a flowing green scarf, hiding behind the Deku Tree. Now we had to find Makar, but things were looking grim for our mischievous friend.

The Lost Woods was blanketed in a thick fog, but that was natural and typical of the haunted forest, so we didn't think twice before entering it. It proved to be even colder beneath the dark canopy, and I quickly became glad I was wearing a sweater. Frost was collecting on the dead leaves as we stepped over them, searching around the tree trunks for our friend. Saria and I stuck close together—the Lost Woods was a dangerous place to wander alone, so we always went in pairs.

After a while, we ventured into the densest part of the fog, but we were so busy looking for Makar that we didn't notice until it was too late. Saria's fairy Tuto shone above our heads, searching this way and that for a sign of the direction where we came, but couldn't see anything through the thick cloud. "Oh, Makar always seems to get into trouble and drag us with him," Saria grumbled, clinging to my arm to ensure that we wouldn't be separated. "Sometimes I wish Mido would teach him a lesson. He deserves it."

"_Nobody_ deserves a lesson from Mido," I retorted, rolling my eyes.

There was a snap behind us, and we both alertly spun around. A dark figure lingered in the mist. I couldn't quite make out who or what it was, but I didn't want to find out.

-

It was nighttime as I stepped out of the Temple of Time. I don't know why, but I felt it necessary to step out before warping—almost as if to remind myself of the country I called home, no matter how ravaged the Marketplace was by Ganon. I had spent such a long time in the land of the Gerudo, I had been feeling a little homesick. It was that night—the very night that Nabooru was captured—that Hyrule Castle Town was invaded by the Gerudo, and the bloodbath of the Hylians was now long gone. So much had happened since then. Ganondorf seized the Hylian crown. Impa began training Sheik, Zelda had gone into hiding… Bongo Bongo began manipulating his puppets in Kakariko and forced them to give in to Ganondorf's rule. I wondered if his power was just restricted to the valley of darkness and those who visited it, or if it had truly swallowed up everybody in the world.

But I had a new danger facing me. The power I had seen in those two witches… It was one I had never witnessed before. The memory of them, circling around Nabooru before swallowing her up into darkness, was burned into my mind despite its relative suddenness. There was a terrible air to those witches, one that was both familiar and yet unfamiliar at the same time, as if I had seen them in a dream or something long ago. The only conclusion I could make was that they were the beings that Nabooru so feared: the Twinrova Sisters, masters of the Colossus. Their sheer ability to evaporate the young Gerudo maiden wasn't what left such an impact on me—it was they themselves that made my hand tremble as it held my sword's hilt. I had faced and triumphed over many a monster—but that's all they were, monsters. The Twinrova Sisters were real, sentient beings with empty coldness in their hearts, just like Ganondorf. And what's more, somehow I knew what they were capable of without even witnessing it. The performance in the Colossus seven years ago was a mere flick of the wand—these witches could kill.

-

The Requiem was all it took for me to stand before the Goddess of Sands once more, situated in the paradise of the world. The Colossus was no different than when I had left it—our boars were even still tied up to the posts. I wasted little time entering the Spirit Temple, where Sheik and Impa waited patiently. "Did you get them?" Sheik asked as soon as he saw me.

I nodded and held up my wrist to show them. The two warriors observed it with mild intrigue on their faces. Despite their silver coloring, the gauntlets seemed golden in the orange light of the temple. "You won't believe what I had to go through to get it," I explained. "We've got way more trouble to deal with than we thought."

"What do you mean?" Impa asked nervously, not liking where I was going with this.

I took a deep breath. "The temple is guarded by a pair of Gerudo witches of immense power. I witnessed a rebel Gerudo being devoured by their magic. She was the one who helped me get the Silver Gauntlets. It was a terrible price for her to pay." Sheik nodded empathetically. "I don't know much about the witches, other than that they collectively go by the name of 'Twinrova.'"

"The Sisters Twinrova!?" the Sheikah gasped. "_They_ control the temple!?"

"You know about them?" Navi asked, equally as shocked as I was at Impa's reaction.

"They've been Hyrule's Number-One enemy since before Ganondorf was born! They led the Gerudo during the Civil War; it was those foul hags that issued the order to terminate my people! I thought they had retired when Ganon took the Gerudo crown. This is most troubling indeed, Hero of Time. I am sorry you had to witness them destroy your friend."

"Great," I moaned. "We've gone from fighting somebody who _wanted_ to wipe out the Sheikah to somebody who actually _succeeded_."

"Not even Bongo Bongo is a match for the Sisters Twinrova."

I tossed myself onto a low guard rail overlooking the temple entrance. "Well," I sighed gloomily, waving my hand in frustration, "what do you propose we do then?"

"Bring an end to her murderous life, obviously," Impa reasoned. "Not even I know how to combat the witches. We shall just have to...what's that word you youngsters use for doing something without a clue?"

"'Wing it,'" Sheik answered.

"We shall just have to 'wing it.' We have no time to speculate at her power; we must get down to putting an end to it."

"Come on, Link, put those gauntlets to use and let's get going!" Sheik ushered. "I'm getting anxious just waiting!"

"Alright, alright," I grumbled, standing up. "But I really do wish we had a plan." I stepped up to the marble block and placed my palms on it. It's ivory white surface was surprisingly cool, even with gauntlets on. I took at deep breath and shoved, but after the initial budge the block was surprisingly easy to move. I was able to push it through a small tunnel and into an open space with little to no effort. "That was easier than I thought!" I exclaimed, dusting my hands off and looking up at the ghostly stone. "These Silver Gauntlets are quite handy!"

"That's why Twinrova sought to destroy them so much," Impa explained, walking up behind me. "You were very lucky you found those."

"I had help," I blushed. "But I'll talk about that later." I peeked out from behind the block and scanned the room we were in. It was empty, though it didn't look like it would be for long. At the moment, though, the only things patrolling the spacious chamber were two Beamos statues each standing by a door. Otherwise, the room was eerily similar to the one I had opened seven years ago. "What now?"

"I do know one thing about Twinrova's weakness," Impa whispered as Sheik came to join us. "Rumors traveled through the ranks of the Sheikah army of a shield that shone the face of whoever held it. This mirrored shield was possessed by the witches themselves, and so we never saw it with our own eyes. But it was said that the shield had the power to counteract the witches' hexes. If we are lucky, they still have the shield somewhere in this temple. One of our tasks will be to find it."

"Unfortunately, we also don't know where these witches exactly are," Sheik pondered.

"That's not our only problem," I sighed. "There's somebody even worse—Ganondorf's mother's here too. Madame Dragmire, I think her name was."

"Madame Dragmire?" Impa remarked with a raised eyebrow. "Now _that_ is interesting. I haven't heard of her since Ganondorf took the crown. If she resides here too, we will have our hands full indeed."

"So, in total," Sheik summed up, "we have three tasks ahead of us. We need to find the Mirror Shield; we need to figure out where Twinrova and Madame Dragmire are; and then we need to kill them."

"Well," I suggested, "considering there are three things we need to find, why not split up? One of us can look for the Mirror Shield, one can look for the witches' hiding place, and one can find Madame Dragmire's lair. How's that for a plan?"

"Hmm..." Impa frowned. "I don't like it. We shall be weaker separate, and if one of us fails than we shall all be doomed to failure."

"On the other hand," Sheik pointed out, "it will be harder to capture us if we are separated. One person is much harder to find than a group of three plus a fairy."

Impa thought for a minute. "Well..."

"We don't exactly have time on our side now that we're in," I reminded her. "We'll need to cover a large area if we all go together."

"...alright. It's a deal. Is there anywhere that we should regroup?"

"There's a big room with a statue of Arbitra in it. I'd guess that room would be the best place to rejoin." Sheik nodded.

"Very well, then. We meet back at the statue. I will search for those vile hags; Link, you can bring your presence to the shield of mirrors; and Sheik, I entrust you with Ganondorf's mother." Sheik and I nodded in agreement.

So it was settled. After taking care of the Beamos, Impa left us through one of the two doors. Sheik and I took the other one. Soon thereafter, we came to another fork. "Well," he smiled, "good luck!" We parted ways, I taking one door and he taking the other. I was on my own—well, I had Navi with me, any way.

The following hours progressed much like they did seven years ago. I had to dodge and avoid guards, creep through rooms, and destroy Armos and Beamos before they sounded the alarms. I eventually found my way back into the statue room but, having no Mirror Shield, I merely continued on in a new direction, investigating a wing of the temple that Nabooru and I had ignored in the past.

Eventually, I found a large, ornate door at the top of a small flight of stairs. "I'm getting vibes from this door," Navi whispered. "I think the Mirror Shield is this way," she offered.

I nodded. "I agree." With great caution not to alert any guards that might be around, I silently opened the door and crept inside.

Iron bars slammed down behind me, blocking any passage out of the room. The twisting corridor before me was of the utmost familiarity—despite it feeling like a memory from long ago, I knew that I had in actuality mentally experienced it less than an hour ago. I stood in the exact mirror image of the hallway where Nabooru and I battled the Iron Knuckle. Though the corner turned in the direction opposite from the previous time, the tell-tale brick pillars and the narrow red carpet leading around the bend were exactly as they had been in the other hall.

And, just as I would have guessed, an Iron Knuckle waited for me at the end of the road. She was dressed in white armor instead of black, but like my Silver Gauntlets the armor looked far more golden than white. I hesitated before approaching her—the Iron Knuckle had been a fierce adversary even when Nabooru had been at my side. Could I face it alone?

"Link, what are you waiting for?" Navi whispered from my shoulder. "What's the matter?"

"Navi," I replied, "do you think I can really do it? _Alone_? Don't you remember what happened last time?"

"Link, you're stronger now. Not only that, but your Master Sword causes far more damage than that Kokiri Sword, _and_ you have those powerful Silver Gauntlets! I'm sure you are more than capable of handling another Gerudo, no matter how much armor she's wearing."

"I'm not so sure…"

"Don't be such a baby! You've fought worse than this! Come on, I'll back you up."

I gulped. "Okay," my voice quivered. Taking a deep breath, I cautiously approached the Iron Knuckle. She watched me warily, but in true Iron Knuckle fashion she did not make the first move. Instead, she merely sat on her chair, waiting for me to make a futile strike at her armor.

"You're on your own this time," Navi chirped. "You'll have to use strategy to beat her."

"Strategy…" I repeated. What could I use to get through that armor? Suddenly an idea began to form in my mind. I swiftly drew my right hand to a satchel hanging from my belt and pulled a small navy blue sphere from it. In true Goron engineering, all I had to do was press a button to light the fuse on top. Before the Iron Knuckle knew what was happening, I tossed the bomb into her lap and watched as it exploded in her face. The blast seemed to rumble the bricks all around us, and for a moment it seemed as if I had blown the soldier to smithereens. All of the sudden, though, a heavy ax swooped out of the smoke, giving me only enough time to back out of the way and prepare my sword for battle. The Iron Knuckle charged out of the fumes without her heavy armor—apparently, my bomb had only succeeded in stripping the warrior down to chainmail. Without the armor she was light on her feet, and I found myself constantly dodging fast, well-placed ax swings almost immediately. I was pretty sure though that my Master Sword could pierce that chainmail, so I only had to figure out how to make her drop her guard.

Even formulating a plan of that caliber, though, seemed increasingly difficult. I didn't have any time to think, because every second of peace I got was abruptly interrupted by the loud boom of the soldier's ax slamming to the floor mere inches away from my darting feet. "Dance, stupid man! Dance before me!" taunted the Iron Knuckle with a hiss. "You'll have to tire out sooner or later!" Indeed, I _was_ beginning to feel a little weary in the legs. The moment I stopped moving, though, was the moment I'd lose them altogether. That ax wouldn't stop until it sliced something in two!

And suddenly, there I had my idea. As fast as my fatiguing legs could take me, I hurried behind one of the brick pillars. As I expected, the Gerudo knight cared little for a mere pillar in the way, and she swung her ax right through it. Instead of toppling over, though, the crumbling, ancient bricks came tumbling down on top of her.

I paused for a moment, inspecting the cloud of dust for any movement underneath the pile of bricks. There was silence for maybe more than a minute. "Yeah!" I cheered cockily. "Who's the stupid man now?"

As if on cue, the bricks exploded as the Iron Knuckle burst forth from the pile. "You'll pay for this!" she roared. With all her might, she swung her ax horizontally towards me, catching my already-torn Zora Tunic and creating a new rip in it. I managed to dodge the ax, but I winced when I looked down and saw drips of blood leaking from the seams. I hadn't realized it, but the ax managed to cut my skin open. Perhaps enraging the knight wasn't my greatest idea.

I doubled my speed, my adrenaline pumping anew, to the other end of the hall. Naturally, the Gerudo was right on my tail. My newfound energy, though, gave me just enough speed to make some distance between the two of us, and in that moment I acted on pure instinct. I whipped around to face her, seized my Fairy Bow, notched and arrow, and fired it right inbetween the rungs of her chainmail armor, directly where her heart was.

The Iron Knuckle stopped mid-chase, and merely stood in place, staring at me. "I... I can't believe it...! You... You beat me..." she whispered. "Wh-Who _are_ you, who moves so nimbly and fights so valiantly, and yet are a mere worthless man?"

"Link," I answered, sheathing my sword and putting away my bow. "Hero of Time."

"L-Link...? Nabooru... She spoke of you once... You were...a friend...?"

I nodded.

"How...fascinating... I've never met somebody so... So brave..." The Iron Knuckle's knees buckled, and she collapsed to the floor, dead. I mirrored what Nabooru had done seven years ago, and seized the arrow that pierced her heart. It was coated in the soldier's blood. But before using it on the door out, I stared down at the soldier I had now killed. This war had taken a new turn. I wasn't just killing monsters anymore, spawned from magic or cursed by sorcery. I was fighting, _killing_ people no different from myself. It wasn't just Ganondorf slaying innocent Hylians anymore—now Hylians were slaying Gerudo that may possibly have had nothing to do with the war. I looked at the helmet covering the woman's head. Did she truly have any connection to this campaign? Or was she a temple guard all her life, with no allegiance to one side or the other? This wasn't people killing monsters, or monsters killing people—this was people killing people. I hated to say it, but I was ashamed of what I had just done.

There wasn't any time to lose, though—Shiek and Impa were counting on me to find the Mirror Shield. I wiped the arrowhead across the wall behind where the Iron Knuckle once sat, and almost immediately it tore away, revealing before me the left palm of Arbitra. On it sat a large treasure chest, and I smiled as soon as I opened it. There, inside, was my own face—a reflection. Pulling it out, I had myself a new shield: the Mirror Shield.

-

My next business was finding Shiek and Impa. I hadn't the slightest clue where they were; they could be anywhere in the temple, possibly even somewhere I had already been. I'd have to search the temple bottom-up all over again.

Unfortunately, I didn't even get the chance to do that. The moment I stepped back through the crumbling brick passageway, two Gerudo guards jumped out from behind two pillars on either side of me and seized my shoulders. "I see you've been up to some mischief, Hylian warrior," cooed the one on my left.

"It is a shame it was all for naught!" the other one cackled. "You're going straight to prison, you little sneak!"

In a flash, all hope of finding Shiek and Impa went out the window.

-

"Well, now what are we supposed to do?" I sighed with deep frustration. Navi was at a loss of any suggestions, and after pacing back and forth on my head, she eventually gave up and slumped onto my shoulder in defeat. I myself leaned anxiously against a fusty orange wall, watching the guard warily as she paced the exterior of my imprisonment. This was a very unfavorable situation, I thought, but wasn't one that was completely foreign to me. When I was in the Dodongo's Cavern I had been taken prisoner by a pair of reptilian soldiers called Lizfols; they weren't the brightest bunch, though, and with a little coercion I was able to trick them into freeing me. That tactic seemed a bit childish now, and as the candle light reflected off of the Gerudo's brown skin I could see the intelligence in her eyes, and the difficulty mere deceit would have in fooling them. I'd either have to be really clever, or I'd have to resort to other methods. Brute force was something I wanted to avoid (it would be a bad thing if the entire temple was alerted to some battle in the detention area), but I was at least under the resolve that this Gerudo would, at some point, have to die. How I'd reach her, and in which way her fate would be sealed, were the issues I had to now resolve.

Navi, I realized rather quickly, would be an indispensable ally in coming up with such a plan. I turned to speak to her, lying quietly there on my right shoulder, when it dawned on me that the guard, with her keen sight and hearing, would easily comprehend any collaboration I made with my dear fairy. This time, the duty of strategy rested on my shoulders. But what could I do with it?

"So what was a man like you doing so far from home?" the guard asked. She pulled a small wooden chair over to the jail bars and took a seat on it. In typical Gerudo fashion, she took no hesitance to intrude on other people's business, and was intent on getting information out of me in as little time as possible. I had no choice but to answer.

"I suppose it's obvious," I answered grudgingly. "I came to take back the Spirit Temple from the evil hand of Ganondorf."

"That's a bit of an odd task though, wouldn't you say? After all, the Dragmire clan has been in control of this temple for centuries, and it has never once changed. I would say your mission is redundant. Typical of a man—you threw your life away without taking a minute to think things through! You're so handsome though, it's a shame regulations keep me from disposing of your misery."

"I think I'll be the judge of what's redundant and what isn't. I've been in many situations where my mission has seemed far worse than pointless, and I've performed miracles by sticking to them."

"You're in the wrong place to be talking about miracles, boy," the guard laughed. "The only miracle that could happen here would be if you were a woman, and I don't think that's happening any time soon. Madame Dragmire will make sure of that."

"Who _is_ she?" I inquired. "Everybody always talks of her like she's Queen of the World, yet the only great power I've seen in the desert so far has been those two witches. If this 'Madame Dragmire' exists, which I believe to be the contrary, she certainly doesn't seem to be around."

"Are you suggesting Madame Dragmire is fake? That she doesn't exist?" The guard clenched her spear. "You're sinking deep in the desert if you think you can get away with that."

"Then where is she? I'm pretty sure I've been everywhere in the temple now, but I haven't seen a single speck of any great sorceress save for the Twinrova Sisters."

The guard was speechless. "She's… She's…"

"If you are so sure your sovereign is around, prove it! Name me the room!"

"I… How am I supposed to know where she is right now? She's…"

"The witches do everything for her," I countered forcefully. "She couldn't possibly have any reason to leave the temple if she has guardians of such power. I repeat, name me the room!"

The guard screamed in frustration. "How dare you speak so wretchedly about our Mistress! Foolish man! You want to see her? I'll _take_ you to her!" I smiled in the back of my mind. Bingo. "She'll take care of you _personally_!"

I couldn't let her see my success, though. "Wait, hold on! Don't do that!" I cried in false surprise. "I didn't mean to—"

"Well too bad! You're toast, _frozen_ toast. Stupid man!" I was released from my cell, though before I had the slightest chance to move (not that I was going to) I was hand-cuffed. "These cuffs are made of Megalith. You'll need more than Silver Gauntlets to break out of these," she added, eying my gloves. I was led out of the detention area and through various halls. I could only hope that Impa and Sheik were faring better than I was; where they were I still hadn't the slightest clue. We passed by many guards on our way to Madame Dragmire's abode, and all of them eyed me darkly as I viewed them.

Eventually, to mild astonishment, we arrived in the room where Nabooru and I had eavesdropped on the Twinrova Sisters. "I knew there was something odd about this room," I muttered under my breath, loud enough only for Navi to hear me. She nodded in agreement. The eyes of the Arbitra statue showed seven more years of age, and parts of the statue now crumbled in places. They still glared down at me though, watching my every move. To nobody's surprise, we stopped in front of the statue's base.

"Great Madame Dragmire!" the guard called, her voice directed at the very head of the statue itself. "I bring before you a prisoner!"

As she was speaking to the statue, Navi fluttered by my ear. "Link, guess what I've got?" A wide grin crossed my face. In Navi's little hands was a golden key, just big enough to fit in my hand-cuffs. "I figured you were planning an escape, so I swiped these when she wasn't looking."

"Great job, Navi!" I whispered excitedly. "Unlock these cuffs, quick!"

A lot happened in relatively little time, so fast that even recalling it only provides me with vague details. The face of the statue (which, I realized, was made of clay) melted straight off, and a foray of rusty-brown drops rained from above. Behind the face was revealed an architectural masterpiece of a door, made of pure gold and engraved with the most intricate and detailed designs I had ever witnessed. Only somebody of immeasurable wealth could have ordered the construction of such a display of affluence. As soon as the door was revealed my cuffs were released. I made little work in stabbing the Gerudo guard in the back; her role was complete.

As soon as the Gerudo was killed, a loud siren went off, blaring through the entire chamber and painfully blasting my ears. Hordes of Gerudo soldiers poured through every door (sans the golden one) like flowing water, all running straight towards me. I clenched my Master Sword and Mirror Shield and prepared myself for the onslaught, but out of nowhere Sheik and Impa dropped down from somewhere above and stared down the guards.

"Sheik! Impa!" I gasped. I had forgotten about them.

"We'll barter words later, Hero of Time," Impa interjected quickly. "Sheik and I will hold them off; get going!"

I nodded and eyed a Hookshot Plate above the golden door. With a flick of the Longshot, I stood before the grand doors, looking down as my two companions started battling the waves of Gerudo warriors. I prayed to Din that they'd get out in one piece, but fulfilled my duty to them and wasted little time in flinging the doors open.

Before me loomed a dark hallway, golden walls shimmering only by candle light. It was far more ornate than any other hall I had been through in the temple, graced with the finest of decorations and glistening with silver, gold, and platinum, a rare mineral mined only by the Gerudo. Statue-esque gargoyles haunted the walls, their hideous faces and monstrous fangs dark against the ceiling. They looked sort of like Moblins, but much more ferocious.

The far end of the hall was too far away and too dark to see, so I had to step into the hall before I could get a better look. As I did, though, the doors slammed shut behind me, and the chaos outside was suddenly lost to silence. "Madame Dragmire!" I called into the bleak expanse of darkness in front of me. My voice shook a little, but I hope she wouldn't notice. "I demand your presence!"

A soft, soothing voice wound its way through the hallway and into my ears. The end of the hall was still black as night, so I couldn't see were the voice came from. All I could tell was that it was beautiful, and that it was a woman. "Young swordsman... Hero of Time... You request my presence?" I could hear a thumping in the distance, like metal clanking against the stone floor. "Whatever for?"

"For seven years, possibly even more, you have commanded the Gerudo and massacred hundreds of Hylians, Zoras, and Gorons alike. I demand compensation!"

The voice laughed. It was a gentle, light-hearted laugh, like a flower opening up with glee in the morning sun. "Compensation...? Is that the best you can think of?"

"You think I jest, but I assure you I'm not!" I snapped angrily.

"And I assure you I am not either!" countered the voice. "Those Hylians..." She laughed another innocent laugh. "...they _deserved_ to die." The thumping was growing louder. I thought I could see a twinkle in the dark in front of me. "Just like you do, Hero of Time."

"Show yourself!" I demanded.

"I think you underestimate me, Hero. I think you underestimate me a lot, in fact." Out of the darkness, I finally was able to discern an Iron Knuckle marching towards me. I clenched my sword. "I've spent _years_ pondering your death. Finally, I've come to a conclusion. You shall die in the worst possible way—brought down by one who you tried so hard to save." She giggled playfully. "Though I daresay the demon of Kakariko beat me to that trick. Let's try again, though; and this time, _I_ make the rules!" Suddenly, the Iron Knuckle burst into a run.

"What do you mean, 'again?'" I stammered. I didn't receive any verbal reply, though; instead, the Iron Knuckle drew her ax back in preparation to strike. I gave up trying to argue and ducked just in time to avoid a horizontal swing that could have ripped me in two like a hot knife on butter. This Iron Knuckle was faster than the previous two, even though she had all her armor tightly secured around her body.

I jumped to the side to avoid a swift vertical swing of the ax and drew my Master Sword. It trembled in my hand, though I hardly noticed it. As before, I moved my hand to draw a bomb from my Bomb Bag, but stopped before it reached the satchel. An explosion, I realized, would consume me in such tight quarters if a bomb went off. To use a bomb would be suicide. How then would I be able to rid the soldier of her armor?

The Iron Knuckle wasted little time in swinging again, but this time I broke into a run past it and into the hallway, giving myself space to back up if I had to. The Gerudo warrior sped towards me unfazed, expecting the maneuver and prepared for it. She slammed her ax into the floor, just centimeters away from my nose.

"Link, your sword is going wild!" Navi exclaimed. In what little seconds I had before the ax was raised again, I peeked at my sword in the corner of my eye. Indeed, it had gone from trembling to shaking madly.

"I wonder if it's reacting to evil again?" I suggested, smile crossing my face. A miracle had just happened. As the ax was raised to full height, I feinted a left and quickly rolled around the Iron Knuckle to the right, taking her by complete surprise. While I had her back in front of me, I swiftly brought back my Master Sword and hacked at the back of the armor, where I figured the defense was at its weakest. The wires holding the armor together snapped with a sharp crack, and the Iron Knuckle's armor clamored to the floor with a crash. Once again, I was faced with chainmail underneath.

"I've defeated your kind before," I huffed, pausing my onslaught to get some air, "and I can do it again! Chainmail can't stop me this time!"

The Iron Knuckle was silent. With blinding speed, she whipped around and jabbed me hard in the stomach with her elbow. I was sent to the ground, clutching my stomach in pain and gritting my teeth. She had hit roughly where my wound was, and I found myself suffering burning agony from it. Without a single word, the Iron Knuckle stood over me and brought her ax up to issue the final blow: a vertical slice, chopping me in two. I shut my eyes in anticipation of the pain to follow. _Farore_, I thought, _I've failed you..._

I waited, and waited. Nothing happened. When I opened my eyes, I saw the Iron Knuckle still standing tall above me, ax raised to its maximum height, chainmail golden as it reflected the walls, but I gradually realized the soldier was still as stone.

Not daring to waste the valuable opportunity contemplating what was going on, I tightened my grip on the Master Sword and tried to ignore the pain as I rose to my feet. I could see myself wince in the reflection of her armor. Then I saw myself pulling my sword back. And finally, I saw my sword come in front of me, as it hacked at the sides of the Iron Knuckle's torso—not hard enough to slice apart the soldier, but enough to bring the same pain I was experiencing onto her.

With a final raise of my leg, I kicked the Iron Knuckle in the stomach, knocking her backwards onto the ground. In falling she dropped the ax, and I winced again and looked away as the blade landed on top of her right wrist, chopping her right hand right off. The Iron Knuckle came to life, screaming and sobbing at the dismemberment.

When I looked back, I had my own horror. The impact with the floor had knocked the Iron Knuckle's helmet off, revealing an all-too-familiar face. Screaming and staring at the bare bone protruding from her handless wrist was the face of Nabooru.

* * *

**A Note from the Author:** The dream sequence was originally going to be cut, but at the last moment I decided to bring some similarity to Part II. Also, this was originally going to end after Link laments to Farore, but that didn't get me where I wanted to be for the finale to the _Dark Mind_ series: that's right, Fallen Matriarch Part _**IV**_! Get ready for the fight of a lifetime; Link vs. Twinrova!

Also, I've conceded to requests and have begun making plans for a _Dark Mind_ spin-off, _Shadow Apocalypse_, which will follow Majora's Mask. I put the first chapter of the first entry, Sovereign Swamped, up on Halloween, so feel free to get your first glimpse as to how Majora's Mask will get its dose of psychological drama and souped-up plots.

Reviews are greatly appreciated, and I promise to you I won't do Part IV if I don't get any. So review to your heart's content!


	4. Phantom's Revenge

**A Note from the Author:** At last! The final chapter of Fallen Matriarch--and indeed, the grand finale for the _Dark Mind_ series! Wow! I've come a long way from that very first chapter of Phantom Destiny; it's amazing how one little romance story about Link and Saria could plant the seeds for such a great series! Thanks to everybody who's been following the series all this time; this chapter is devoted to you! And especially ThatFanFicGuy, who had requested Phantom Destiny after reading Imposter; if it wasn't for him, none of this would exist. Now sit back, relax, and enjoy. (note: this is the lengthiest chapter in the series, so be sure to have some time on your hands if you want to read it all in one sitting)

Reviews are so appreciated and wanted that you can consider them mandatory. Isn't that wonderful?

* * *

**Part IV – Phantom's Revenge**

Two witches on broomsticks hovered around me. Their hair were tied into a teardrop-shaped bun, their eyes bugging out to a spooky degree. Their dark olive skin was wrinkled, and they had very few teeth left. Atop one's head was a blue crystal; on the other's, an orange one. "So, Hero of Time, we meet at last," said the blue-capped one.

"We've been watching you," added the orange-capped one.

"W-Who are you?" I demanded. "What have you done to Nabooru?"

"We are the twin sisters Twinrova," sneered the blue-capped one, her stare so cold it could freezing my soul.

"Guardians of the Spirit Temple!" added the orange-capped one, her voice burned into my mind.

"Koume and Kotake are our names," the blue-capped one continued.

"And witchcraft is our game," added the orange-capped one.

"I am Kotake," Kotake, the blue-capped one, said.

"And I am Koume," Koume, the orange-capped one, said.

"Together we are one."

"Separate we are two."

"Yet together or separate..."

"...we've had our eyes on you."

They motioned towards the sobbing creature laying on the floor. Nabooru was a wreck. "L-Link..." she cried. "H-Help me! Link!"

"Nabooru is a traitor," Kotake said.

"And traitors should be punished," Koume said.

"We brainwashed her seven years ago in the desert," Kotake cackled.

"But it seems you have broken her spell," Koume growled.

Kotake looked at Koume. "Koume?"

Koume looked at Kotake. "Yes, Koume?"

Kotake pointed a wand at Nabooru, who shrank back. "She must be exterminated," Kotake said, her voice wickedly low.

Koume nodded and pointed her wand at Nabooru. "I know, Kotake," Koume replied.

I could only stand and watch as the evil sisters pulled their wands back and fired a magical blast. Nabooru screamed and ran, but she was not fast enough. The blast struck her, and she let out a blood-curdling shriek. In seconds she collapsed to the floor, dead.

My nightmare, relived. In just a few seconds, I realized why the witches were so familiar. I had dreamed of Nabooru's death years before it even came into fruition. If only I had remembered sooner... "You monsters!" I roared. "I'll have my hands around your necks for this!"

"Will we, Hero?" they cooed at the same time. In a puff of smoke, they vanished.

"Come back!" I cried into the suddenly-silent hall. "Come BAAAAACK!" Almost on cue, torches flashed on in the dark hallway before me. There was a single door at the very end of the hall.

"Enter at your own risk, Hero of Time," the witches' voices cackled. Hesitantly, I walked through the long hall to the door. It was featureless, apart from a large Gerudo symbol painted on it in black. From the look of it, the door hadn't been used in ages. Opening the door greeted me with more darkness, just as the door into the hallway had. I stuck a hand into it. It seemed safe enough. The space before me felt more like a bubble's membrane, though, than an actual space.

"Go on, Link," Navi whispered.

"I don't really have any choice," I sighed. Taking a deep breath, I entered the darkness.

It truly was more of a membrane; on the other side of the doorway I discovered a room, and the hallway I had just been in fell into darkness. As soon as I was fully through the door, it slammed shut. Looking around, the room I stepped into was dimly lit, but irrefutably empty. "Welcome to the Dark Labyrinth," the witches' voices greeted, though they were nowhere to be seen. They sounded quite pleased with my predicament, and were almost proud in the way they declared my location. "It is here that you shall meet your untimely end, cursed to exist in oblivion for eternity."

I searched my surroundings. It was undeniable, though, that they weren't there. "Where are you?" I demanded.

"We are nowhere, and yet we are everywhere," they answered. "You shall answer to the great Madame Dragmire only if you survive our trial. Otherwise, it is your fate to be eliminated."

I stamped my foot. "Quit being cowards and show yourse—"

"Silence! If you would like, we can kill you now and you won't even have a chance! Is that what you want?"

"N-No—"

"Then prove you have some spirit, and haven't been a waste of our time," Kotake growled (her voice was a bit deeper than Koume's, so I was able to figure out who spoke).

"Play the game of despair!" Koume ordered.

I saw no point in arguing. It wasn't too difficult to remember what they did to Nabooru. "...alright," I surrendered, "I'll play your game. What do I have to do?"

"There are three trials in the Dark Labyrinth," Kotake explained.

"The Cavern of Destruction. The Tomb of Sorrow. And the Temple of Despair," Koume clarified.

"We have constructed traps and dangers. If you are truly Hero of Time, we expect you to have little trouble with them. If you are not who you say to be..." Kotake and Koume laughed. "But we are witches, and we play fair. You will not be left to your own devices...completely."

"We will give you three items," Kotake explained. "You may need all of them if you are to win the game."

"We will provide you with a Stalhound Whistle, a bundle of Ice Arrows, and a single Grappling Hook," Kotake continued. On cue, three pedestals rose from the floor until they were shoulder height. On one sat a pale white whistle, shaped in the form of a hound's skull. On the second was a pile of four or five arrows. Though they looked normal, I didn't doubt their magical title. On the third was a long rope with a metal claw on one end. "Feel free to take them." I nodded and slipped the Ice Arrows into my quiver, putting away the other two articles.

"We shall see you at the top," the witches declared in unison. With a laugh, their voices faded away. The dark wall to my left opened up into an atramentous tunnel, beckoning me to enter. I gulped, glanced at Navi for reassurance, and entered.

-

When light returned, it was in the form of torches, hanging against rocky walls on either side of me in neat, evenly spaced rows. The hallway was dark, but I was able to see enough to acknowledge that it was much less of a hallway and much more of a tunnel. The floor, ceiling, and walls were all made of bedrock, and the tunnel dug deeper and deeper into the earth in front of me, neither ascending or descending, but most certainly going deeper into some cavern.

"So this is the Cavern of Destruction," I mumbled under my breath. "What sort of tricks do those witches have planned for me?" Navi shrugged. I advanced slowly and cautiously, checking the floor in front of me for any traps to speak of. To my surprise, however, I didn't encounter a single trap; the tunnel just went on and on, perfectly safe.

The deeper I delved into the cave, though, the more bizarre my environment became. There were childish whispers and giggles, oh so quiet and yet most certainly present, somewhere in the distance both before and behind my adult body. Weird rock formations on the walls formed menacing faces, and every now and then a blurry, shadowed area on the floor in front of me would appear to be a living face, as sentient as I, only to reveal itself as no more alive than the rest of the rock when I came closer. But sure enough, a few more steps and I'd see that threatening smile on the rocks again, grinning at me in the distance. I perceived, therefore, that this was no ordinary cave (surely anything contrived by two evil witches would be anything but the ordinary, but I had had little to eat and was sleep deprived, and so my mind wasn't working as fast as it should have been), and that it would only be a matter of time before the seemingly-harmless surroundings would reveal themselves to me as violent as a crazed Big Octo, like the one I encountered inside the belly of a god seven years ago.

I drove onwards through the never-ending tunnel, groaning as the hours passed and nothing apart from illusory faces turned up. My legs began to ache, my head nodded every few minutes, and my posture was beginning to slouch. Come to think of it, I hadn't slept for any decent amount of time since playing the Prelude of Time in Kakariko Village. Whether or not this would affect my ability to fight remained to be answered, but I seriously hoped I'd be able to stand my ground against whatever was at the end of this tunnel—considering it had an end at all, of course.

And then, when my energy was just about out, evil came out of its hole. A little girl came skipping along towards me through the tunnel; at first I thought it was a hallucination, but as she grew closer I stopped, shook my head ferverously, and looked again. She was truly there, a child in a dark, infinite tunnel—the Cavern of Destruction, no less. I wasn't dumb, and knew any little girl in a Dark Labyrinth was surely an enemy, but I couldn't help but feel like I had seen that girl somewhere before. No matter how close she got, I did not draw my sword.

At last she arrived, and there I saw (believe it or not) Fado, one of the Kokiri that I had grown up with. And then it was certain that I could not and would not down a friend from the past. She didn't say a word, but merely grinned and waved. I was the first to speak; even Navi was spellbound. "F-Fado?" I inquired. "Is that really you?"

She didn't answer. Instead, she silently pointed down the tunnel and gestured for me to follow her. It was a trap, I decided, and it may be best for me to go the other way, if only to trick Fado into vanishing into whatever magic created her. But turning around I got a shocking surprise: a great stone wall, made of the same rock as the rest of the tunnel, blocked my way back no more than three yards away. I could move infinitely forward in the tunnel, and yet I could only move three yards back. I had no choice but to follow Fado further into the tunnel.

We walked for quite some time, Fado never speaking, until another Kokiri showed up: one of the Know-It-All Brothers. The second came shortly after. In fact, after a while I found myself surrounded by every Kokiri I knew, with the notable exception of Saria. Mido led us onward, mute like all the others (and for that I was pleased; a silent Mido seemed like a blessing). We continued and continued, until to my surprise another dead-end began to come forward from the darkness. Our journey ended at another flat wall impeding my progress.

It was here that the sisters Twinrova made their magic known. "Why have we stopped here?" I asked my silent companions. To this they turned around, and I saw the darkness in their eyes, as if something had hollowed them out and removed everything behind them. There was little difference between the eyes of these Kokiri and the eyes of ReDead. I stumbled backwards, taken by surprise by the disturbing sight before me. My friends became my enemies, and had led me to my tomb.

Or so they would have wished. My mind was halfway in a different place, but I was delighted to find my primal side was just waking up. The Kokiri revealed small daggers, Mido a Kokiri Sword, but my hand almost involuntarily moved to my Master Sword's hilt and drew the Sword of Evil's Bane. I was aware from the beginning that the two-timing children were no more than a mirage, and so the only emotional hesistance I experienced was from the fact that they were virtually identical to my friends from seven years ago. I had to close my eyes before swinging the sword, and I tried with all my might as I bloodied the tunnel's floor to cancel out the grotesque sound of snapping bones and necks as I decapitated them all. They didn't stand a chance; I didn't expect them to. Their purpose, I was soon aware, was mere psychological mockery from two wicked hags. These Kokiri were meant to die.

When it was over, I could scarely eye the pile of bodies on the tunnel floor. If anything, I had given the Cavern of Destruction its title—I had destroyed my friends (plus Mido, who was a poor choice on Twinrova's part because I never liked him anyway; had they chosen Saria, I would have been debilitated). I was reminded of the Moblins I slaughtered in my assault on the Sacred Forest Meadow, and how similarly their headless, disfigured bodies stacked upon each other when they died. My adventure in the art museum atop the meadow's cliffs, I realized, was almost a month ago. It felt like I was working by the days, but I had been an adult for more than three weeks. And in those weeks, my sleep had summed up to be very little.

But the tunnel had now ended and there was nowhere to go. As I turned around, though, I was pleased to find that the wall that had constantly lurked behind me had departed, and I could see at the very edge of the farthest visible torch's light, a sort of drop-off. I nearly ran; it was such a relief to find the tunnel's end that I was overcome by joy despite the grim surroundings.

I stepped out onto a ledge overlooking a vast, open expanse. It was a circular cavern, so clear-cut that at a glance I could tell it was the most perfect of circles. Its diameter was enormous—the size of Death Mountain's crater, I'd warrant—though it was only as high as the cliffs surrounding the Kokiri Forest. Holes in the ceiling were all that let light into the grotto, shining down onto the jagged, rocky floor like spotlights. The cavern was obsequiously empty.

"It's a trap," I concluded with a sigh, letting Navi onto my shoulder. My hope to be in the Tomb of Sorrow was crushed; no matter how different the space before me was from the enchanted tunnel of variable length, I was still in a cavern. The trials of the Cavern of Destruction weren't over yet, and big spaces (as I had learned in the Dodongo's Cavern and Shadow Temple) usually meant high-caliber danger.

"Obviously," my tired fairy nodded.

"What do you think is going to attack us?" I mused. "A dragon? Or maybe stalactites will rain down on us from above, like they did in the Dodongo's Cavern? Perhaps we won't fight at all, and will just be crushed from a falling ceiling."

"I really can't tell you, Link," Navi replied, letting out a deep breath. The poor dear, she was truly exhausted. "You'll just have to prepare for anything."

"I wonder what use these items are going to be?" I questioned, pondering the value of the three things given to me by the sisters Twinrova. "I really don't see how any of them would help me escape from a place such as this."

"We'll just have to find out. Do you want me to fly out first?"

"No! I can't bear to think what would happen if you were gobbled up by some invisible monster. Why don't I go first?"

"We'll go together." That was something I could agree on.

Stepping down a small stone staircase, I nearly jumped at the loud echo of my boots arriving on the bumpy floor of the cavern. "Well, I'm here!" I called into the abyss. "If you want to kill me, show yourself now!" My voice radiated for ages, it felt, before I got a reply. It was a reply I never would have expected.

Four flames illuminated themselves in what I guessed was the center of the cavern. One burned the fieriest of orange; another, the coldest of blue; the third, a most hateful of green; the final, a truly evil purple. Though they were far away, I could just make out a black shadow beside every flame, with a gleam of red glow around what must have been slits for eyes. They were, as I recognized rather distastefully, ghosts blacker than midnight and eviller than the most mindless of starving lions. And indeed, that's what they were: lions, or lionesses to be more correct. Starving lionesses on a hunt, a hunt that they inevitably hoped would end with blood. Floating in the center of the cavern was none other than all four of the Poe Sisters, the same quartet that had tortured my beloved Saria to no end, and whom had found glee in tormenting me with images of her death as I slayed them one by one in the Forest Temple. It felt like so long ago, yet the sight of the four hags was enough to give me clear reminders of why I hated them.

The closest of the four wore a purple crown, if you could call it that—surely full of hay, it looked like the sort of headdress a witch would wear during a murderous ceremony. It was of terrible taste in modern fashion, and I doubt even the witches Twinrova would dishonor themselves with a hat as wretched as this. She alone addressed me; it was Meg, the oldest of the Poe Sisters. "Hero of Time, most horrid of Hylians!" she denounced. I couldn't help but notice her voice a little weaker, and her shadowy body a little fainter, than they were when I brought them to an end in the Lost Woods. "You dishonored the House of Cauchemira when you so cruely vanquished my sisters and I. It was foolish to think you'd seen the last of us, though I'm disappointed our second meeting wasn't in the world of the dead as the Lord of the Lost Woods would have hoped. His failure, though, was suitingly punished by the Great Ganondorf." The other sisters nodded. "It was in the world of the dead, though, that we discovered a dark secret about your past, most repulsive of swordsmen."

"A dark secret?" I scoffed. "I don't have anything of the sort!"

"Don't interrupt, darling," snapped Amy, the youngest of the sisters, who hooded her face in a green cloak. She was, at least, the politest and most pleasant of the Poe Sisters, but her undead heart was nonetheless corrupted by the envy she felt towards the living. Though her old voice was softer than her sisters', it was no less commanding.

"Thank you, Amy," Meg nodded to her sister. Turning her crimson eyes back onto me, she continued, "We met somebody, somebody you know very well. Needless to say, it was shocking in the least to hear that such a 'noble' person as yourself brought him his demise."

"Again, I don't know what you're talking about!" I insisted. In my entire life history, I took pride in that I did no wrong.

"Perhaps you need a reminder?" Meg snickered. Mysteroiusly, the Poe Sisters separated, so that they were equidistant from themselves and from the ends of the cavern. "We thought as much. You'll be pleased to know that he, not I, shall be the one to tell you what you've done." I looked at Navi questioningly. She had a confused look on her face, as if neither she nor I could figure out this paradox. I could just barely make out the hand of Meg, who had come closer to me, rise and snap.

Suddenly, the entire cavern seemed to rumble. A bit desperately, I seized the edge of the steps to keep myself from falling over onto the hard floor. In the center of the cavern, something began to raise itself from the earth. At first I saw a single crooked white needle, then some more, and some more, until I realized that leafless branches were revealing themselves and rising towards the ceiling. They were as pale as bones, as if they came from a dried out wasteland. I was certain there was no life remaining in them. Soon, the branches seemed to center into the point where the first had risen—the center of the cavern. There, the trunk of some tree began to rise. Already, the highest of branches had gone back through the ceiling, giving the trunk a very pillared look. It was thick and dry, actually rotting in some places. The bark, though, was dead familiar. I found myself dreading what was to come before it too rose from the ground. I gasped and nearly lost my hold on the stairs. When it finally ended, I found myself looking straight into the eyes of the Great Deku Tree from seven years ago. Or, at least, the dead version of him.

"Link!" the tree boomed in a fashion both sorrowful and furious. "You did this to me!"

"No!" I cried. "It was Gohma!"

"Away with your lies! Why did you do this? Didn't I and the Kokiri raise you? I sheltered you when you needed it, and this is what I got in return?"

"I'm telling you, it was Gohma!" I pleaded.

"Link, I... I can't take this!" Navi looked like she was going to faint. I quickly opened the pocket of my tunic before she plopped in with a light thump.

"DIDN'T I TELL YOU TO STOP LYING!? Link, you and you alone... You MURDERED ME!"

"NO!" I screamed. "IT WASN'T ME!!!"

"You think I don't know who my own killer was!? I wished you to save me, not to be my executioner! You are a MURDERER, Link! A MURDERER!" The ground seemed to shake with his final word. I shook my head, lip trembling, trying to tell myself that somehow, someway, this had to have been an illusion by the sisters. It couldn't possibly really be him, could it? "I demand justice be brought down upon you! JUDGMENT!" The words came from his very own wooden mouth. Now I felt close to fainting. I could hear disturbing laughter echoing from the branches that remained in the cavern. Though the Poe Sisters were up there, I was almost certain the laughs came from something else. "You must DIE for what you've done, Link!"

"You heard him, ladies!" Joelle, the red sister, cheered. "Let's get him!" Overhead, I could see Beth, the blue sister, nod with glee. They cackled and started swooping down at me like Keese, arms spread wide as they glided through the air.

Real Deku Tree or not, I couldn't just stand there—I had to do something! Perhaps the sisters had cursed him; would destroying them work? I fired an arrow at Joelle. She hooted when my air flew right through her without doing a thing.

Navi dazedly peeked her head out from my pocket. "Link," she weakly groaned, "try one of...urp...the three things they gave us..."

I nodded, but I had no time to think which one to take. I just reached into my supplies and pulled out the first one I touched—the Stalhound Whistle. Without a moment to lose, I took a deep breath and blew as hard as I could into the instrument. Not too far in front of me, a lion-sized canine rose from the ground. It had no organs to speak of—like Stalfos, it was only a skeleton. There wasn't much time left. "Can I ride these things?" I demanded.

"I think," Navi squeaked.

I ran forward and swung myself onto the Stalhound. "Uh... Forward, forward!" I cried. The Stalhound broke into a blinding speed, leaving me only enough time to clutch its shoulderblade bones before it erupted forward. I stole a glance behind me and saw Joelle and Beth angrily crash into each other before spinning around and giving chase. The Stalhound began following the wall of the circular cavern, and we began to spin around to the backside of the Deku Tree.

"You can't escape us!" Joelle snickered.

"Revenge shall be our's!" Beth added.

Not if I had anything to say about it, I thought. The question was what running would do for me; all it did was give me time to think. We briefly rushed through one of those spotlights while I was busy looking back, and the reflection off the Mirror Shield almost blinded me. That was enough to give me an idea, though. "Perhaps this will do something?" I asked outloud. Navi only shrugged from my pocket.

Holding on as tight as I could with one arm, I turned my waist around and pointed my Mirror Shield towards the two sisters. We ran through another spotlight, and in that moment the light bounced off of my shield and shined onto the two hags that followed me. In a flash, both of them vanished in a puff of smoke. The Stalhound ran out of the light, and I was able to see the spot where I swore just moments ago they had flown. "Did they turn invisible?" I stuttered. The furious screams overhead told me otherwise. A brief glance up and I saw Meg and Amy were virtually tearing themselves apart in anger. Meg was even pulling dangerously at her hat. Somehow, the light must have disintegrated them! Or worse...

"Inconcievable!!!" screeched the elder sister. "God of Earth, I command you to destroy him!"

"You must pay for your crime, Hero of Time," thundered the Deku Tree, swiveling itself around to face me.

"I'm telling you, I didn't do it!" I insisted. My cry was followed with a woozy groan as the Stalhound lurched forward, jumping over a particularly craggy rock and landing hard on the ground beyond it. Suddenly, the earth before us trembled, and the Stalhound dodged to the left just in time to avoid the tip of a giant root surge forth through the rocks. Not to long after, we had to dodge another one. The Deku Tree continued to follow us around the circle.

My eyebrow rose when I saw frolicking, laughing little imps drop down from the Deku Tree's lowest branches. As merry as they appeared, the spears they brandished told me they were up to no good. They approached me at tottering speeds, and as ineffective as I thought that would be, I was surprised when I looked forward and saw one about to stab me. Fortunately, I had my sword in my hand in time, and I knocked the short wooden creature away. "Navi," I asked, "what _are_ these things?"

"Koroks, Link!" Navi explained. "Or at least zombie ones. They're probably like the Kokiri we saw before; you just can't see their faces!"

Koroks—an interesting adversary. Koroks were the true forms of the Kokiri—it was through the wishes of the Kokiri that they had donned the appearances of Hylian children. I had never seen a Korok before, but could understand how they got to be called forest sprites. They were little more than small logs or tree stumps, configured into the shape of little goblins with leafy masks covering their faces. They reminded me of the Deku.

Things seemed to get increasingly troublesome, however, when Korok zombies began rising from the ground rather than dropping from the Deku Tree (who I was now certain was no more real than the Kokori and Korok zombies). When my Stalhound wasn't sharply dodging the rising roots, I had to busy myself with knocking Koroks away from the sides of the creature.

I was particularly frustrated with one Korok who, despite losing his weapon, decided it would be a hindrance to me if it grabbed onto my leg and just hung there. He was impossible to get off, and with all the bouncing around my mount was doing and the other Koroks I had to worry about, the extra weight on one side was a constant agitation.

Just as I was finally peeling the Korok off, Navi spoke up. "Link!" she reported. "Keep a sharp eye out for trouble; Amy's gone missing!" I looked up; she was right. There was only the violet hag Meg floating in the skeletal canopy.

The moment I lowered my vision to my front, the youngest sister showed herself. In a poof of green fire, the jovial Amy materialized right in the Stalhound's way. She didn't care though, and with a quick sweep of her hand there was a burst of green energy that launched towards us and vaporized the undead hound. I hit the rocky surface with a terrible crash, going from high speed to no speed with all the deceleration coming from my poor body.

"Enough running away, dearie," cooed Amy. "Let's play now!" Just as I was getting to my feet the witch dashed towards me with her flame spinning around her, intent on giving me a burn I'd regret. Recalling the ineffectiveness of my weapons on the two middle sisters, I didn't stand my ground; instead, I ran for my life! Whenever I thought I had lost her, the tricky puzzle-lover appeared out of thin air right in front of me, prepared at the get-go to incinerate me. To my relief, a quick look around showed that the Koroks hadn't realized the Stalhound was gone, and the spot where it had been destroyed was being stamped on by Korok zombies before they were impaled by a root, and then the process would start all over again.

In the corner of my eye I spotted a bit of light not too far away. Amy recognized my sudden burst of courage, and tried emitting green beams at me rather than try to get up close. My Mirror Shield somehow was able to cancel her beams out, and I made a mental note to give the shield a try if I ever ran into a Beamos. To her frustration I made it to the light before she could stop me, and with a sudden movement I flipped around and flashed her green hide with a ray of light. She was gone in mere seconds.

Meg screeched unintelligible words from the Deku Tree's branches. I glanced upwards and saw her flailing in anger. "This can't happen again!" she screamed, collecting herself suddenly and pointing at my accusingly with a crooked black finger. "I won't let it!" I blinked, and suddenly she was in the form of a purple flame with sinister blue eyes, hovering in the air. With a fluid motion she slithered through the air, until finally she shot herself _into_ the Deku Tree, which upon contact she vanished entirely.

"I'm taking matters into my own hands!" roared the Deku Tree. His voice was now scratchy, effeminate, and wicked; it didn't take too much to guess he was being possessed. "You'll die for this outrage!"

"How? By you hiding in a giant dead tree?" I reconciled. "This whole time, you haven't lifted a single finger. You hags could have all ganged up on me; in fact, you could have done so in the Forest Temple, now couldn't you? Instead, you thought it a bright idea to hide in paintings. And now, after sitting back and doing nothing while your sisters were destroyed again, you're hiding yourself in the Deku Tree's dead body! I don't see how you'll spell my end at all; maybe the Deku Tree, but certainly not you! Face it—you're just a coward!"

"How DARE you!?"

"If you're so brave, then quit hiding and let's put an end to this!"

I got no response. The Koroks turned their attention to me, and all at once began teeter-tottering towards me with weapons held high. I grabbed my Master Sword and started hacking at the little nuisances, but they took no damage whatsoever. Instead, they were merely knocked away. "Navi, my sword isn't working!" I related hastily.

"Try your shield! It worked on the sisters, maybe it will work on these too!" Navi answered just as quickly.

I nodded and backed back up into the light. As soon as I directed my Mirror Shield onto a Korok, it collapsed into a heap of sand. "It works!" I cheered. Very quickly, I brought the rest of the Koroks the same sandy fate. Lowering my shield, I unintentionally reflected a bit of light onto one of the raised roots. Shockingly, I caused part of it to disintegrate, leaving a well-defined hole in the shape of my shield's mirror. "Navi," I pondered outloud, "what if..."

With great vigor I turned around and directed my shield at the Deku Tree. The light relayed off of my Mirror Shield and onto the trunk of the dead plant. He didn't disintegrate at first, but instead trembled and screamed. His yells were a strange blend between those of the Deku Tree and those of Meg. Within minutes, the massive zombie began sinking into the cavern floor, melting into sand by the second. When it was all over, light wasn't even necessary. I just watched the last of his branches collapse into a giant pile of sand as the last of his screams died out. When everything was said and done with, the sand erupted into purple fire, and slowly faded away.

"Have a look at that, Navi," I noted, pointing at the center of the spacious cavern. Where the Deku Tree had risen, there was now a gaping black hole. "That must be the way to proceed. Let's get going."

"Fine by me," Navi smiled.

-

At the bottom of a ladder I discovered another small hall lined with fire. This hall, however, apart from being darker was lined with torches of blue fire—not the cold fire, mind you, but it wasn't the hot kind either. It had no feeling. "Welcome to the Tomb of Sorrow," echoed the voice of Kotake. "We are impressed by your performance in the Cavern, but we shall see how you fair in the catacombs of the Twili."

"The Twili..." I repeated. An ancient race, the Twili vanished from Hyrule long before the Civil War. Nobody knew why they vanished, but as it was believed that they were one of the primordial tribes inhabiting the region ages before the Hylians even existed, most believed they went in the same fashion as the Moon People of Headstone Mountain and the Sun People of the Snowpeak Mountains. The three tribes were shrouded in mystery; Impa had been studying them for years before she went to the University, and even then she knew so very little. I had no idea what the Twili's cemetery was doing so deep underground, but I figured this was just a trick of a witch.

At the end of the hall I stepped out into another open cavern, though this time it was rectangular. Though no light seemed to exist this deep beneath the earth, the cavern was illuminated by a faint blue glow that seemed to come from the air itself. Though dark, I could still see. The cavern floor was covered with tombstones, each evenly spaced into a multitude of rows and columns. A slow, silent river flowed in a straight line at the other end of the cavern, resembling little more than a blue band slicing through a blue cave. The cave seemed lifeless in its entirety; but as my eyes adjusted to the dim light, I saw that life was numerous so far below the ground.

Giant Skulltulas, greater in size than I had ever seen in the Lost Woods, tip-toed through the columns and rows like silent sentinels, patrolling the graveyard more efficiently than even Dampé could accomplish. Their ghostly-white backs, virtually identical to the faces of enlarged Hylian skulls, bobbed as they weaved in and out of the rows, and their black head, crowned with hundreds of glossy red eyes, shimmered in the dim glow of the cavern. I had never seen a Skulltula on the ground; I had always thought them tree-dwelling creatures. This was truly a bizarre night to remember. Thinking back, I only had two of the three weapons on hand given to me by Twinrova: the Grappling Hook, and the Ice Arrows. Which would I be using in the tomb?

I hadn't the slightest clue about how I would proceed, but I thought it best first to try taking care of some Skulltulas. Perhaps, I thought, if I were to empty the tomb of the arachnids I would be able to continue. Stepping down another small flight of steps and onto the black, surprisingly sandy surface of the graveyard, I recalled that Skulltulas had very poor eyesight. If anything, I wouldn't have to worry about fighting too many. I could take them out one by one. How I could handle Skulltulas as big as these, though, was the most glaring problem. "We'll just have to cross that bridge when we get there, right Navi?" I shrugged. She nodded silently, then hid back in my pocket.

I tightened my grip on my Master Sword, but eased it directly thereafter. All this stress wasn't good for me; Skulltulas, I was well aware, weren't the worst I'd be fighting tonight. Why should I spend all my energy, of which I was losing by the second, on the appetizers when the main course was still in the distance? Perhaps, I figured, a relaxed, systematic approach would be best for these arachnid underlings.

I took a deep breath as I walked into the path of one of them. They were far bigger up close than they had been at the end of the hall—from there they looked to be about the size of goats, but up close they were surely the size of horses. In any case, it was a little taller than I was. The spider didn't notice me until it was four gravestones away, and then it hissed quietly and reared. "Come on," I baited. "Come and get me." The massive skull back was cumbersome to the giant creature, and its onslaught was slow. I marveled at how its small feet stamped the sand like a broomstick on a wooden floor. It was truly a bizarre creature.

I held up my shield, but seeing that the beast was trying to charge me I sidestepped into a different row, intending for it to run past me. To my surprise, though, it exhibited great maneuverability and made a sharp turn, crawling right over the grave and ramming its head into my Mirror Shield. I squeaked, but held my ground. Its head was as big as my shield was, and its mandibles were long enough that they were merely inches away from my right hand, reaching around the shield and struggling wildly to get further. The impact of the spider's head, together with holding it at bay, brought great stress onto my right arm. I was able to sneak my sword under its pushing head and decapitate it, but when the great beast collapsed I winced as pain shot up my right arm.

"Are you okay, Link?" Navi piped up.

"Yeah," I groaned. "I just don't think I'm going to be able to use my shield arm for a while." Navi returned with a look of sympathy. I sighed in dismay and hung my shield on my back. I'd have to come up with some other method to down any other spider I fought. However, when I saw what came forth from the dead Skulltula, battling arachnids was the least thing on my mind.

In the stump the Skulltula had now for a head, water—rather than blood—poured forth. At first I thought it must have been a trick of my eyes, but it continued to pour and pour, as if the creature was a giant sack of water that I popped the cork from. The water trickling from the beast spread incredibly fast, and before I knew it a thin layer of water covered the graveyard's surface, turning the floor from sandy to being a sort of shallow beach. The layer was only an inch high, more or less, but the fact that it existed was enough to give me apprehension.

At about the same time, I became aware that there was a distinct dripping sound coming from somewhere nearby. At first I thought it was the Skulltula, but when I directed my pointy ears towards it it seemed to be in the wrong direction.

Somebody began to clap. It was a slow clap, as if impressed but believing it could have seen better. I spun around. "Bravo, bravo," cheered a deep, horribly familiar voice. A pair of red eyes twinkled in the blue darkness. The head they existed on quivered, as if no more than a reflection in the water, and flickered like a light bulb going out. "Glad to see you still have that oh-so-special touch, _Fairy_ Boy."

Horrible, dark, bloodstained memories wound themselves over and over again in my mind. Recollections of hatred, revenge, and fear. A dead king, a massacred race... And the murderer's greatest accomplice standing at my doorstep. "What are you doing here?" I growled in a low voice. Dark Link was a being I hated probably more than Ganondorf himself.

"I think the answer is obvious," the doppelganger replied. His answer was in every single way the sort of answer I'd give if asked the same question. The answer _was_ obvious. I had just been hoping for the contrary. "I'm here to kill you. Though I'd prefer to have a chance to talk to you first."

I nodded. "I expect you to tell me why your filthy soul isn't dead yet."

"I expected you to tell me that. Heh heh... Truth be told, I'm not the illusion you battled in the Zora's Domain; though I know all about it, how greatly my former succeeded. The sisters Twinrova were skeptical of Lady Morpha, and they thought it foolish that Ganondorf give her life in the first place. It was clear that a monster of such power and intellect would be traitorous in the very beginning. So the witches hired a sorceress from the darkest corner of the four kingdoms, a black magic expert named Veran, in order to find out how to best conquer Morpha should she get out of hand. Though you certainly did everything for us." Dark Link smiled a very devious smile. "But in her studies, Veran discovered how to replicate the creation of doppelgangers. Lady Morpha's replication of you proved very handy for her; the Gerudo needed a weapon like that. So after a bit of prodding, a bit of money, and a promise of power, Veran created me." Dark Link rotated his body in a complete circle. "What do you think? I don't even need that filthy amoebic juice that my former needed to survive. Just plain, ordinary water."

Actually, when I considered it, I wondered why I hadn't come up with that conclusion sooner. There was no reason why Ganondorf and his minions wouldn't want to know the secret of Morpha's Dark Link. I should have expected this.

Dark Link looked around the Tomb of Sorrow. "It is a pity that your end should come here. We aren't even in the same world as you live in. Your defeat shall never be witnessed by anybody."

"What do you mean, 'not the same world?'" I demanded.

Dark Link shook his head, smiling menacingly. "It's time for you to die."

Dark Link quickly pulled out his sword and thrust it towards me, but I expertly side-stepped it. He may have my appearance, but he was in no way as experienced as I was. My side-step visibly took him by surprise, though that only served to anger him. He swung around again with his sword, which I narrowly ducked. I then brought my own sword up from underneath him, but it merely passed through. "Not again..." I muttered in frustration.

Dark Link vanished all of the sudden, and I only had enough time to jump his low swing as he rose from the water behind me. A dirty trick of Morpha's illusions that I had forgotten—they were made of water, and so no solid object could harm them, and they could sink into and rise from the water as they liked. The only thing I knew was capable of hurting them was electricity, and I didn't have Ruto around this time to release it.

"Wait a second!" I exclaimed, swinging myself around another gravestone to avoid the constant swinging of Dark Link's sword. "He's made of water!"

"Link, try your Ice Arrows!" Navi suggested, though she merely put what I had in my mind into words.

"With pleasure," I grinned. As quickly as I could, I reached into my quiver and pulled out one of the very limited number of Ice Arrows Twinrova had given me. Blessed with icy magic, as I had read once in the Kokiri Forest's library, Ice Arrows could freeze anything their arrowheads touched. I notched the cold arrow in my Fairy Bow, took aim, and fired.

Dark Link had merely expected the arrow to pass through him, but instead it hit his left arm solidly in the underside of his elbow. The watery reflection cried out in pain as sanguine water spouted from the wound, which solidified so that it wasn't transparent any longer. "You'll pay for that," he cried. He snapped his fingers on his right hand.

A Skulltula came plowing through gravestones from our right. With a swift jump, Dark Link landed on the spider's back. "What shall you do now, Hero of Time?" he snickered.

"Uh... Run away!" I answered with a yelp, grabbing Navi from the air and shoving her under my hat before making an about face and running. The Skulltula thundered after me, toppling over gravestones as sand and water was flung into the air by its spindly legs. I could hear the ghosts of whatever bodies lay underneath the tombstones moan in agitation. I had heard legends of strange cyclopian ghosts that lived in tombs such as the one I was in, called Ghinis, but I hoped that this tomb was an exception. From what I had heard, they were worse than Poes.

Dark Link laughed behind me, obviously enjoying my fright as he effortlessly pursued me in the dark blue cave. I tried to shut him up with another arrow over my head, but to my frustration the Skulltula knocked the arrow away with one of its legs and continued to chase me. "I don't think arrows are going to work this time Navi," I groaned as I took a sharp turn to avoid hitting the wall of the cavern, though it was still far away. "And my sword is out of the question..." Forcing my mind to multitask between running and thinking, I thought back to past experience, hoping the secret to Dark Link (or at least the Skulltula's) destruction was there. When had something been impervious to any sort of weapon at all? There wasn't any time I had met something invincible...except twice. It dawned on me that I had faced a monster of such qualifications a little more than a week ago, and that meeting had been a reunion. The dry voice, the dusty claws, the slavish behavior; Dead Hand, spokesman and loyal servant of Bongo Bongo, had resisted my sword and even pulled it into him. In both meetings, I had needed to rely on the magic of the gods to slay the zombie; perhaps that was the key to defeating one of my two adversaries now.

Without stopping my feet for a moment, I thought back, trying to remember what the magic words were. I was beginning to tire (indeed, one cannot run very fast for very long when sleep deprived), and Dark Link's Skulltula was coming closer and closer. My replica's haunting laugh echoed throughout the entire Tomb of Sorrow, and soon the other Skulltulas began to home in on me as well. I was surrounded.

"Flame of my heart, burn... No, that's not it," I tried. "Fires of nature, bring down this creature? No... By Farore's Book, what were those words!?" In moments all of the Skulltulas, Dark Link's included, would be on top of me. I was running out of time. "By the Great Din's Inferno...? That's not even close!"

"Hurry!" Navi cried, peeking out of my hat and witnessing the many spider heads so close we could see each individual eye.

"I'm trying!" I cried.

"There will be dinner tonight, my pets!" Dark Link laughed.

"That's it!" I yelled. "I remember!"

"Then say it already!" Navi pleaded, slamming the rim of my hat back down over her head. I could feel her trembling.

"May the energy of seasons and nature bring me might," I recited as loud and fast as I could, planting my feet in the wet sand and flinging my hands into the air, "bring me a fireball tonight!!!" Just as the mandibles of the Skulltulas were mere feet away from me, opening and preparing to rip me apart, a circle of roaring flames erupted around me and expanded outwards, catching every single spider in its wrath. The Skulltulas cried in pain, but Dark Link's roar of fury was the loudest of them all. I saw he survived the fire, but his Skulltula did not. The flames lasted for a very short time, and when they vanished I was satisfied to see every Skulltula crippled on the floor, burnt such a dark black that I knew they were dead.

"And as for you," I addressed Dark Link, "quit pretending to be me!" I seized another Ice Arrow, notched it in my bow, and fired it at him so quickly that in his confusion and frustration he didn't know what hit him. The arrow nested itself in his chest, and within seconds he froze. Where the wicked illusion once stood there was now only an ice sculpture shaped in my name.

The tomb fell into silence. Navi and I were the only living souls remaining; it was a bit of an eerie feeling, almost as if we were the last beings in the world. I climbed up on top of one of the dead Skulltula carcasses and surveyed the cavern. There didn't seem to be anywhere to go from this point.

Slowly, though, I began to see progress. The back wall, on the other side of the river, began to grudgingly fall back, extending the length of the cavern more and more. As I watched and waited, a statue began to carve itself out of the receding wall. It was in every way identical to the statue of Arbitra that graced the entrance to the temple far above us. Even in the dark blue of the Tomb of Sorrow, I could see every detail of her design. At the base of her coiled body was an ominous doorway, open and beckoning us to enter.

Crossing a bridge over the river, I saw that the opening was no less inky and dark as the entrance to the Dark Labyrinth. "Is this the Temple of Despair?" I whispered, prompting Navi to exit my hat and land on my shoulder to see for herself. "Does this mean we're almost done?"

"Why have the witches been so silent?" Navi asked, looking around and particularly at the bare cavern ceiling. "I haven't heard from them since we entered. I wonder what they're up to?"

"Panicking over my success, I hope," I mused. "Either that, or they're laughing as they think about my demise. I wonder what's in store for us?" Eager to find out and get this long challenge over with, I advanced towards the Temple of Despair.

Stepping into the darkness felt like traveling through a membrane, similar to the feeling I experienced entering the Labyrinth. For a sharp, split second, my breath was taken away, and then it came back again as I appeared on the other side of the darkness. It was nearly taken away again.

I found myself back in the entrance to the Spirit Temple. "What the—?" I gasped, nearly fainting. It was... It couldn't have been... It was the Spirit Temple, and yet it wasn't. The walls were as smooth as a baby's skin, the golden cobra statues were now silver and without tarnish. Instead of a rusty orange hue, the temple was a dark blue—the mere effect of a moonlit sky outside. It was as if everything was new; there wasn't a single crack in the floor, which was graced with the most eloquent of rosy red rugs. Yet looking behind me, I could only see the darkness I had passed through. "Navi, where _are_ we?" I questioned. Truth be told, it looked undeniably like the Spirit Temple, and yet there was something different about it, as if it were all a dream. The walls bent inward at odd angles, the snake statues seemed a bit more ferocious and alive, and there was a bit of a hollow whistling sound that seemed out of this world. It was like turning the Spirit Temple into a book and having somebody rewrite the entire novel, true to the original but with the new author's own flair. The story was even branded a new title: Temple of Despair.

"Link," my fairy murmured, after taking a moment to think, "I think we're in the..."

"But Navi... We can't be!"

"Wait, let me finish! I think...well, I'm just throwing this out, but what if the Spirit Temple we knew was just an illusion—what if this is the _real_ Spirit Temple?"

"Why would that be, though?" Navi was picking for straws, I could tell. But her guess was as good as mine.

"You don't think somebody so rich as Madame Dragmire, or a race so powerful as the Gerudo, would leave their most sacred place in such bad condition, do you?" She landed on my hat and started pacing back and forth. "I've been wondering since we arrived in the Desert Colossus why the Spirit Temple was practically falling apart. But if the real temple was underground... That would be a different story. It would be the ultimate protection!"

I considered it. "So the real Spirit Temple... Is the Temple of Despair?" This sounded ridiculous, and yet it fit...

"That's what it looks like."

"Then we aren't out of the labyrinth after all," I groaned. Making the best of our situation, though, I surveyed the landing, and found both wings were open. "Which way do we go, then? And where to?"

"I'd warrant the witches are here somewhere, Link."

"Then to the statue room!" I decided.

I chose the right wing, and started making my way back to the room with the statue of Arbitra. Before I could even make it past the fork, though, I ran right into a Gerudo guard. Quickly, I made for my Master Sword; Navi stopped me before I could. "Look, Link," she gasped, horror trembling in her voice, "look at her eyes!" I froze. The Gerudo guard, just turning around to face me, didn't have any eyes at all. Where her eyes should have been, the seductive guard had black holes.

"She's a... She's a _zombie_!" I exclaimed, staggering back.

The guard didn't care whether it was or wasn't, though, and without a word she came at me with her scimitar-topped spear. I stepped out of the way and nailed her in the back with my sword. Before she could even hit the floor, she turned into sand. "This is rather disturbing," I mumbled, staring disdainfully at the pile of sand on the moonlit floor.

"Here's another theory for you," Navi offered. "What if the Spirit Temple wasn't even a real building; the one above ground, I mean. There wasn't any sign of any evil corruption there, like there was in the other temples. Everything seemed...well, normal. I'll bet you _this_ is the true corruption of the Gerudo."

"I'll bet you I would have seen this if I had used my Lens of Truth," I grumbled. "Should have thought of that." I rotated my right shoulder and stretched it. The dull pain had gone away. "Hey, I think my arm's feeling better," I smiled. "Let's keep going. And keep it up with the theories, I'm enjoying them."

I quickly found that I had to blast my way through the whole temple. There was twice as many guards here, it seemed, than in the fake temple; fortunately, though, they seemed quite expendable, and I could disintegrate them with a mere swing of the sword. It disturbed me to no end, however, that they were zombies. Navi was spilling out idea after idea, all of them warranted, and pretty soon I was able to paint a picture of what happened here. The Cave and Tomb had merely been illusions, just like the Spirit Temple; mirages of what truly was. The former two had behaved as a portal, though, into the true temple, the Temple of Despair. Here, I was seeing the Spirit Temple for what it truly was: corrupted and transformed from a glorious palace to a zombie-infested fortress. The Gerudo, for how long I had no idea, had been brainwashed by Madame Dragmire and were serving her without question in her evil campaign. Perhaps that was why the Gerudo in the fake temple didn't seem truly evil—they were unknowingly doing evil, not willingly. What I could only wonder now was what that meant for me.

It seemed like there were zombies in every room. Among them were not-so-statue-like Armos Knights that attacked me as soon as they saw me. My Master Sword couldn't make a dent in them, but I found my bombs worked quite effectively. They exploded with the bombs, turning the zombies around them into dust. As I progressed through the temple, I couldn't help but remark at how enchanting it seemed, graced by moonlight (for I realized now that I wasn't underground anymore) through open windows that pierced the dark blue shadows with pale white light. To my delight as well, the light disintegrated the Gerudo guards just as effectively as my sword did. It was a pity to see them die so pathetically, but it had to be done.

Finally, though, we arrived in the statue room, which was illuminated by a great circular window at the top, through which a full moon shined, as well as by the eyes of the Arbitra statue, which glowed a haunting yellow. The face, I saw, was intact. How I'd get it open, I didn't have the slightest clue. The room was completely silent—as I peeked out from behind a pillar I could see guards, but their brainless-silence brought not a single sound, not even by footstep. The light from the window, as well as from the statue, cast a great spotlight on the center of the open chamber, and to my surprise I saw shadows there on the floor, though not a single body cast them.

Two of the shadows I recognized. They were, to my surprise, the shadows of Shiek and Impa. The other shadows, all of which moving in a great chaos, were overlapping eachother; however, it didn't take Saria to guess that they were the shadows of the Gerudo my friends were fighting. I was surprised that after so much time, they were still in a fierce battle. The Gerudo, I saw, kept coming in droves. _I wish I could be there to help them_, I thought. It was fantastic the way they battled, though (in truth, I had never seen them fight together before), and I took a moment just to watch. Finally, Navi nudged me into action, and I surveyed the great expanse in front of the statue to plan my strategy.

Looking through the jagged darkness, I saw two unknown figures standing directly in front of the statue. They were dressed in cloaks as dark and blue as the temple, with their hoods up and heads down, and with their hands together but consumed in sleeves, so that I couldn't tell what they were at all. I assumed, though, that they were villainous, and that I'd have to fight them the moment I stepped out of the pillar. It was time to test that theory.

With a deep breath, I stepped out from behind the pillar and walked cautiously towards the center of the room. The guards reacted, though the cloaked figures did not. The zombie guards charged towards me, spears ready, stepping around the light to avoid turning to dust. My sword and shield clanged against one or two scimitar tips, one (to my greatest annoyance) scratching my shield's mirror a little, before I laid the guards to rest in sand. Without even breaking a sweat, I approached the light in the center of the room. A trap, or an ally? I had to figure it out.

As soon as I reached the center of the spotlight, though, it faded; the moon was covered by clouds. The room fell into even darker darkness, though the glowing eyes of Arbitra remained intact. There was a shuffling sound, and I darted my eyes to the two cloaked figures in time to see them move. Their heads rose, revealing themselves to be strange bird-like creatures, with long orange beaks and pitch-black feathers, broken only by glowing eyes as yellow as Arbitra's. Through one sleeve came a scaly, taloned hand; through the other, a long wooden staff. They approached me slowly, hidden taloned feet clicking against the smooth stone floor. "What are these things, Navi?" I inquired hastily.

"I... I don't know. But... I think they might be Wizrobes."

"Wizrobes?"

"I thought the Cult of Wizrobes went extinct ages ago... So I don't know... But Wizrobes are bird people raised in the art of dark magic. They're evil wizards, you could say."

"Great," I groaned, tensing my left hand in preparation for battle, "magic!"

As if on cue, one Wizrobe rose his staff and chanted a few words that I couldn't understand. The staff's tip was consumed by a great ball of fire, which was subsequently thrown in my direction. I quickly sidestepped it, but was shocked to find it still moving in my direction. I ran back towards the other end of the room, by the two great staircases, but it continued to move towards me. Finally, instinct took over and without any other idea, I flung my shield in front of my face.

There was a dull clanking noise, like somebody flicking a metal bowl, and one of the Wizrobes squawked loudly. I looked up to see the Wizrobe's robe on fire, with him desperately trying to put it out. "This shield reflects magic?" I exclaimed.

"You should of seen it," Navi chirped. "Great idea, Link!"

With newfound spirit, I charged towards the Wizrobes with my sword held high, shield in front of me. Before I could reach the wizards, though, the other one chanted something and both of them disappeared. "Where'd they go!?" I demanded.

"There they are," Navi directed, pointing at the tops of the staircases.

"They're sitting ducks!" I grinned. "They've never fought somebody like me before." As quickly as I could, I shot an arrow at each of them. The arrow zoomed right through their fireballs (which I reflected, of course) and pierced each one's heart, the reflected fire dealing the final blow. "That wasn't too hard."

"Don't let your guard down," Navi warned.

"Well, the next thing to do is figure out how to get _that_ to open," I explained, directing my gaze to the ominous face of the Goddess of Sand. "What are you hiding?" I asked her. "You've been watching me all this time; you know what I can do. What is the secret to opening you?"

The light returned, gracing the temple again with the rays of the moon. It was a welcoming sight to see my Mirror Shield reflecting it again. "Hmm," I pondered aloud. "This shield has proven to be helpful again and again. I wonder if it will lend me its assistance again?" I returned my eyes to Arbitra's. They glowed as hauntingly as they had before, but I saw something different in them now. "Are you telling me something?" The statue's shining eyes seemed less like omniscient sentinels and more like end points. I grinned. Perhaps, somehow, Arbitra was on my side. I had never thought about it before, but was it possible that she, like the Goddesses, wanted me to succeed? "I understand."

I directed my Mirror Shield's aim towards the statue's clay face. The light reflecting from the shield connected with the light emitting from the statue's eyes, and to my satisfaction the face began to melt away, as it had done in the ersatz temple when I was brought before it. Behind the face appeared a door identical to the previous one, but this one had a low iron fence in front of it. The perfect thing for my final tool.

"Time to put an end to this, Navi," I beamed, proud of my own intellect. I pulled out the only item remaining from the three given to me by the sisters Twinrova: the grappling hook. "I must admit," I mumbled, examining the iron-tipped rope with a wave of unconfidence, "I don't know how to use this thing."

"How about this, then?" Navi proposed. "I'll fly up to the iron bars with the hook and latch it on for you."

"Could you do that?" I smiled. "That would be a great help."

"No problem, Link!" my fairy chirped. She took the black end of the rope from my hands and I grasped the other end. The iron proved to be heavier than Navi had thought, and it was a pain to see her struggling to lift it all the way to the top of the statue, but she made it in the end. After testing to make sure she hooked the fence tightly enough, I took a deep breath and pulled myself up the statue's front. Letting out a big exhale, I thanked her when I reached the top and flipped myself over the fence.

Before opening the grand double doors, no less glamorous than the pair in the previous temple, I noted that they were silver rather than gold. Despite great similarities, I had an inkling that the door would take me somewhere new. I made sure to get my sword and shield into my hands before pushing the door open.

The hallway where I had fought Nabooru was a grim sight, and brought back those horrible recent memories of her death. However, the hall I stood in was undeniably different from the dark corridor where Nabooru and I dueled. This hall was blanketed with the light of the moon, casting its heavenly glow through rows of stained glass windows. Their vibrant colors, yet the overall pale light shining through them, was a sight to behold. The strange, ethereal beauty of the hall was a surprising contrast to the dark, unfriendly environment of the Cavern and Tomb, and for a moment I forgot I was in the fortress of Ganondorf's own mother, not to mention two horrible witches. The silent peace was welcome. I grew cautious, though, when I saw that under each and every window lurked a Wizrobe, as still as a statue, between the light and the walls of the hallway.

As I passed through the hall towards the pitch black end (which was identical in every way to the pitch-black void at the end of the other hall) I noted the windows with curious interest, keeping watch on the Wizrobes through the corner of my eye. Each row included two windows, one on my left, the other on my right. Each row was different from the rest, and there were eight rows altogether. To my surprise, I recognized the pictures on the stained glass instantly. The very first row bore greens, blues, and purples, and I was understandably awestruck to see the Forest Temple depicted, standing at the top of the Sacred Forest Meadow with a golden full moon behind it. At the center of the window was Phantom Ganon, and three of the four Poe Sister's flames graced the rectangular bottom; at the rounded top was Meg's purple fire. The next row portrayed the crater of Death Mountain, exactly as I had witnessed it, with the Fire Temple ominously in the back, surrounded by the frightening image of the dragon Volvagia. The row after that showed the Water Temple and Lady Morpha, the one after that the dark Shadow Temple and the sanguine eye of Bongo Bongo. The next row depicted what I recognized as the Temple of Time, a shadowy figure similar to Queen Gohma looming in the night sky behind it. Further down were two rows I didn't recognize—one showed a part of the Lost Woods I was unfamiliar with, with a stone temple standing in the shadiest and foggiest spot in the picture and a Poe's lanturn hanging over it; the other depicted a giant windmill in a snow-covered mountain range, a shadowy serpent eclipsing the moon. The final row showed none other than the Spirit Temple itself, but with a column of fire on one side and a column of ice on the other. I didn't know what to make of that; but in terms of the windows in general, I was quite certain that there was more behind the creatures I fought than I had first believed. Was their existence predicted? And if so, by whom?

As soon as I stepped into the darkness at the hall's end, though, they sprung into life. Their hoods uncovered their demented avian heads, and with a gleeful snicker they drew their magic wands and approached me. I was too close to use my shield, though, and drew my sword in preparation for one last battle before the end.

I fought valiantly, and despite the trickery of the Wizrobes' magic I managed to bring them down one by one. I almost chuckled when the last one fell. It was too easy; why would the witches waste my time when they knew I was stronger? What were they up to?

Stained glass windows lit up further down the hall, illuminating a door identical to the very one that brought me into the Dark Labyrinth. With no Wizrobes under them this time, I passed by the windows without hesitation, until I saw that they all depicted the same thing: me. There was a picture of a small child with blond hair, with shadowy figures with pointed ears looking down at him; the next row showed me as I was seven years ago, with the ominous eye of Queen Gohma looming above my head. The final window—though I was certain the dustiness of the windows meant they were at least a few years old—showed myself as I was now, as if I were looking in a shattered mirror. Above my image were two crooked, grey hands—surely Bongo Bongo's—outstretched like a puppeteer's, with threads dangling from their fingers.

As I observed the final row, the door to the labyrinth swung open. Again, I was met with the dark veil. "I hope I'm not going to start all over again at the entrance by doing this," I moaned. I hesitated before crossing it. Whatever laid on the other side, considering it wasn't the Cavern of Destruction, would possibly be my final battle in this long journey. It would be harder than anything I had ever gone up against. "I don't know if I'm ready," I whispered half-heartedly.

"You can do it, Link," Navi reassured. "I know you can. You're the Hero of Time."

"This it it, Navi. Let's do this." With a deep breath, the deepest breath of my life, I stepped into the darkness.

-

I was met with a sharp, cold wind that stung my cheeks without remorse. I was surprised to find myself standing high above the ground, completely exposed to the cloudless night sky of the Haunted Wasteland. The sky was covered in dot-like stars, though the most prominent actor in the globe's theater was the moon, giant and full, shining in the heavens almost like a giant spotlight or star. Far below I could see the top of the walls enclosing the Desert Colossus, and the countless sand dunes beyond that. My feet were planted on a dusty, stone surface that was ancient but not in the least bit cracked. It was smooth and bare, and was as ghostly white as the moon. Peeking over the edge behind my feet (for wherever it was I had stepped out of was now most certainly gone) I could see the scaly top of Arbitra's hood. I was on the roof of the Spirit Temple.

There was a strange, distorted whirling sound, and I turned around only for my eyes to be greeted by the hideously ornamented faces of the Twinrova Sisters. The gems implanted into their foreheads sparkled unnervingly in the moonlight, though they themselves were untouchable by the light. "Congratulations on your victories in the Dark Labyrinth," Kotake applauded mockingly.

"It was a shame we didn't deal more damage than we did," Koume sighed wishingly. "Perhaps we wouldn't need to dirty our hands by clapping."

I gripped my Master Sword's hilt. "I haven't come to be applauded," I stated. "I'm here to kill the two of you, and Madame Dragmire if I ever get my hands on her."

Koume and Kotake looked at each other for a moment and burst into laughter. They hooted away, as if my words were the funniest thing they had ever heard. "You don't get it, do you?" Kotake cackled when their laughing fit was over. "Madame Dragmire is already here!"

"What!?" I gasped. I looked around hastily, but couldn't see anybody other than myself, Navi, and the Twinrova Sisters.

"Silly boy," Koume snickered, "haven't you wondered yet who we are?"

"You think us two crooked old ladies, don't you?" Kotake chuckled.

"But we are merely one in the same!"

"Madame Twinrova Dragmire, at your service!" they declared in unison with a grandiloquent bow.

"You're kidding!" I exclaimed, taking a step back dangerously close to the edge of the roof. "You mean you two are...?"

"That's right," Kotake nodded.

"We're Ganondorf's mother," Koume answered.

"Well then," I announced, albeit gulping, "I declare that it is my destiny as Link, Hero of Time, to slay you two witches in the name of Hyrule!"

To this they laughed again, though it was a much darker laugh. "You don't scare us, boy," Kotake growled.

"We've been waiting for this moment for a very long time," Koume added. "Since before you were born."

"What!?" I gasped. "What's that supposed to mean!?"

"We want nothing less than the world, dearie, and a prophecy said you would be the only one capable of standing in our way," Kotake explained. "Even our son is a puppet of our's; you are the only one who is outside our control, and it is only natural that you should be our number one priority."

"You haven't figured it out yet, have you? We've been hunting you since you were born," Koume sneered. "Your foolish parents thought they could get away from us by hiding near the woods. It was only a matter of time before we found them."

"Your father put up such a fight!" Kotake cackled. "But surely he would have recognized that somebody capable of wiping out an entire race would be capable of such a simple task as setting his body on fire."

"I had great fun in doing it," Koume assured, "but I was most displeased to see your mother got away with you in her arms. I couldn't get to you after you got under those trees, though rest assured I had a great deal of fun when your mother came back out."

"You mean you killed my parents!?" I screamed. A mixture of anguish and rage exploded inside of me. I held my sword out high and ran at them with everything I had in me, ready to spill every ounce of their blood and paint it all over the temple. Before I could even touch them, though, they each revealed a broom.

The two witches took to the air. The night sky erupted into a furious gale storm, white clouds whirling around the temple's roof with such force that they could have plowed straight through a building. A great wind began to blow, and though it didn't pick up any sand it swirled around and around, nearly blowing my water-breathing hat off, and left me with the sense of being in a hurricane cloud. Indeed, such a tempest thundered around us that sparks of lightning flashed out of the clouds now and then. "You're not getting away this time, boy!" the two witches cried in unison. "Will you give up and die now, or will you choose to die with as much pain as possible?"

"You two are the ones who should be choosing!" I roared up at them.

"Temper temper," Kotake laughed, spinning around me from high above. "After I helped you with that little incident in the fortress near the border? You should be thanking me!" I realized our "savior," Syrup, was merely Kotake in disguise. This made me even more angry.

"The entire take-over of Hyrule was our own doing," Koume warned. "Not to mention the Civil War. We were the masterminds behind both. We've killed off an entire race; not to mention we've summoned thousands of powerful monsters. Do you really want to stand up to somebody as mighty as we? Now be sensible and choose!"

"I'm not choosing!" I repeated more forcefully than ever. "It's the two of you who don't get it!" That shut them up. "Real heroes don't give up, no matter how bad it seems! They always have spirit, whether they are on top of the world or are in the pits of Majora's underworld. When you're a hero, you don't just do something because you think you'll benefit. When you decide to be a hero, or when the title is forced onto you like it was onto me, you sacrifice everything to make sure that evil hags like you are brought justice! I haven't come this far just to give up to the two of you after seeing a few fireworks. I mean to end this, as the one and only Hero of Time!"

Staring up at the Twinrova Sisters, the embodiments of unfathomable evil, I tightened my grip around the hilt of the Master Sword. It glowed with the purest of light, casting away shadows with a holy ray. In my right hand I clutched the Mirror Shield, from which one could see the reflections of virtually everything in the room. My fairy clung lovingly to my neck. "This is it, Navi," I stated in a low voice. "The fury of my Sword of Evil's Bane will never rest until these monsters are slain. I will have revenge, or I'll die trying." It was never Ganondorf; he too was a mere puppet in the eyes of his mothers, who swirled around me in the air with menacing faces so ancient and hideous that they were the very statement of what the Twinrova Sisters were: Ultimate Evil.

"How dare you call us hags!" Koume screamed. "You little brat!"

"Perhaps we underestimated you," pondered Kotake aloud from her broom. "But I think I can freeze that notion, ho ho!"

"Indeed, you were more powerful than we thought," concurred Koume from her's. "But perhaps I can send your future aflame, ha ha!"

I stupidly made the first move. With a swift movement of the arms, I had an arrow notched and shot it at Koume. Before the arrow could even touch her, it melted away. "You think you can harm me?" she cackled. "Boy, we are more powerful than mere arrows. Your petty weapons can not harm _us_!"

"However, for you it is quite the contrary!" Kotake declared. I turned around just in time to see her behind me, raising a crooked wand into the air. I ran out of the way as a powerful blast of blue fire slammed into the temple's roof, leaving a large puddle of ice in its wake. "Dang it, Koume, I missed!" the ice witch scoffed.

"You never were the best shot," Koume growled. "Here, let me show you how it's done!" Now she rose her wand, and from it radiated a beam of yellow fire, just nearly singing my hat as I ducked.

"Well, you're no better," Kotake snapped. "At least the boy's arrow made it to you; you couldn't even touch his _hat_!"

"This is no time to bicker, sister," Koume snarled. "Kill him!"

"Don't you tell me what to do!" Kotake snarled back as she flung another column of blue fire my way. This time I wasn't so lucky, and was so wound up in the sisters' argument that the blast caught me off-guard. I whipped my Mirror Shield in front of me, praying to the Goddesses that it would be enough to shield me from such a powerful attack. I slammed my eyes shut.

To my surprise, I didn't feel any fire whatsoever. My right hand, however, felt very cold. Peeking my eye open, I saw a miracle; the fire was bouncing off the shield and into the sky! "Link, your shield can reflect their magic!" Navi chirped in relief. I had myself a weapon at last.

"Nooooo!" howled one of the witches, though I couldn't tell who. "He has the shield! The bloody shield!"

"How could we have missed it!?" cried the other. "The outrage!"

"So, you pilfered from our temple _twice_!" Kotake accused of me, pointing a wrinkled old finger at me angrily. "You rotten little thief! Why weren't we informed!?"

"Oh, did you not get the memo?" I sneered proudly. It was a good idea to kill that guard after all.

"The guards shall pay for this!" Koume roared. "I'll torch a thousand heads!"

"Don't torch them! Torch _him_!" Kotake corrected. With another wave of her wand, she fired a beam of blue fire at me. Using the skills I had learned all those seven years ago fending off Mad Scrubs and Octoroks, I expertly received the blast with my shield and directed it back at her. Before it could make contact, though, Kotake furiously waved her wand again and disintegrated the fire. "Enough! I won't have you playing tricks on _me_!" she stated. I stared at Kotake in frustration. If she could just disband the fire, my shield wasn't much of a weapon after all. "What's the matter?" she sneered. "Lost your toy?"

Koume suddenly cried out. "Don't worry Kotake, I've got him!" she cheered. Before I could react (or Kotake could react for that matter), a column of hot fire spiraled towards me. My shield, however, was still up, and in seconds the flames bounced off of it and went straight into Kotake. The ice witch cried and fell to the roof with a thump. I cheered and began to run towards her with my sword, but another blast of fire hit the roof between us, creating a pool of magma where it hit and blocking my path. Kotake regained her senses and took to the air.

"Koume, you idiot!" she screeched, waving her hands in the air furiously. "Think before you cast!"

"I wish your mouth would freeze," her sister grumbled.

I watched the two bicker, but decided it would be best to come up with some solution to my dilemma while they were distracted. It didn't take long to see how they could be foiled. They were, after all, very easy to set off. "Hey fat face!" I yelled to Koume. "You couldn't hit a Dodongo with that aim!"

"Why you!" the fire witch roared.

"Don't shoot!" Kotake warned. "He's just trying to trick you!"

"I've felt colder on Death Mountain, lard-for-eyes!" I taunted at Kotake.

"On second thought!" The witch launched a beam of blue fire at be, but I reflected it onto Koume. Koume collapsed to the roof, and this time I was quick enough on my feet to get to her before Kotake could stop me. Koume was ready, though, and fired a blast of fire before she even left the ground. I reflected this onto Kotake, who also fell out of the sky.

In the moment of shock between the two sisters, I rammed my shield into Koume's face. She was knocked back onto the ground, and I rose my sword to end her once and for all. Kotake was quick to protect her sibling, though, so I found myself having to reflect off another blast of blue fire. That was enough for Koume, though. Their magic was powerful enough to deal great damage to themselves.

Koume knocked me away with her broom. "We can't get on this way, sister!" she cried. "Not with that _shield_!"

"Much agreed, sister," Kotake groaned from where she sat, wincing at her aching back. "I think it is time we called _her_."

"Yes, I think _she_ would teach him a lesson," Koume smirked.

As I got myself up from where I had landed, I saw the two hags hobble towards each other. "You thought you won, getting the better of us old ladies?" Kotake accused of me, rubbing her back. "How ungallant of you!"

"I believe it is time for you to meet Madame Dragmire," Koume growled, seizing Kotake's hand.

"Play time's over!" they both cried before the clouds surrounding the temple spiraled inward and engulfed the two witches. I lost sight of them in the clouds and lightning. They were silent for a moment, but then there was a bright flash and I had to shield my eyes. When I was able to uncover them, they were met by somebody new.

A Gerudo woman stood tall above me, with no sign of hobbled bones or decaying joints to speak of. The only indication of age at all were a few wrinkles on her face; compared to the century-old appearance of the Twinrova Sisters, this new person looked between the ages of 50 and 60. She was clad in the most flowing of robes, with sleeves that, though only wrist-length, had such wide holes that their bottom tips touched the roof's surface. Her long, spindly fingers had fingernails as red as fire on one hand and as blue as blue fire on the other—on both hands, the nails were almost as long as Wolfos claws. Her bronze skin seemed even darker in the violet sky. She was slender and nimble, like Nabooru and the other Gerudo soldiers, though her hair was a stark white and tied up into two gigantic buns over her head in the shape of a "V." There was an air of dignity and power in her face, and she boasted an appearance that would make any husband fear to anger. When she spoke, her voice was the same as the voice I had heard prior to fighting Nabooru. "Behold, you pettiful worm," she declared lowly, "Madame Dragmire stands before you."

Before I could react, the newly formed witch lunged towards me and slammed her foot on my chest, knocking me backwards and off the edge of the roof. I grabbed the edge with both of my hands to prevent myself from falling, but in my act of desperation and still in my sleep-deprived state, I made the worst mistake of my life: I let go of my sword and shield. To my horror, the two things I needed the most plummeted down until they landed in the grass of the oasis far, far below. There was no chance I'd be able to get them back.

The witch stepped forward and peered down at me disdainfully, as if I was some ugly mark on a white sheet of paper. "And so it ends, 'Fairy Boy,'" Madame Dragmire sneered. "After all these years, I finally have you."

"Why?" I demanded from where I hung. It was all I could do, after all. "Why so much? Just...to bring me down? You... You don't rule the Gerudo anymore—your son does! Isn't all this...just in vain?" All my muscles were struggling to cling to the roof. I couldn't give up! I just couldn't!

"Ha!" She spat. "My son! You don't realize it yet, do you? Ganondorf was and always will be nothing more than a pawn. Do you think I'd waste my breath raising that brat just to have my power taken away? It was outrageous! My own son, destined to take my crown away from me? I'm the real ruler of the Gerudo, not that kid who thinks he's king. I would have killed him in his crib, but I needed him to kill the Hylian King, seeing as my entire race was incapable of doing so before."

I gasped. "You mean—?"

"That's right, kid. He's just a puppet, and as soon as he's done hunting the Princess of Destiny down for me, I'll kill _him_ too!"

"That's terrible!" I roared. "He's your own son! How could you _do_ such a thing!?"

"What gave him the right to take all that was mine away from me!? A stupid and outdated tradition! When I'm so close to ultimate power, why should a silly tradition stop me?"

"But he's..."

"And what's more, he, just like you, has something I want. You, the princess, my son... You're all connected. And that is why you must all be slain, so that nothing—_nothing_—gets in my way." Twinrova cackled the most evil of cackles. "And I think your time is up, Hero of Time." She snapped her fingers, and suddenly a swirling black vortex materialized beneath my dangling feet. It enveloped the air around the entire temple, turning the world beneath me an inky black. One of my hands slipped an inch, knocking a small bit of the edge loose. Like a pebble it fell from the temple and into the blackness, where it just fell and fell.

"I believe oblivion has made your acquaintance once before, Hero of Time," Madame Dragmire cooed. "In the Forest Temple, if I remember correctly? He was a birthday gift for my charming Ganondorf, if you were wondering." My hands slipped a little more. "Careful not to fall," she laughed.

"You're a monster," I growled. "You've killed thousands if not millions of innocent people, and on top of it, you've raised your own son only with the intent to kill him when his use runs out. How do expect to live, once everybody else in existence is dead?"

"...I'll just have to cross that bridge when I get there," she answered darkly.

With a burst of hatred and rage I put every bit of muscle into my hands, and with a swinging leap I kicked off of the side of the temple and swung back onto the roof. Even though I was weaponless and in need of a miracle, I only knew that if I fell into oblivion the world would be doomed to destruction. It didn't matter that I was likely to die; something had to be done! That must have been the resolution to do it, because at that moment to both of our surprise my left hand began glowing yellow. "What's this!?" I gasped, holding my hand up to my face in bafflement.

"Such courage..." This was a new voice. Both Twinrova and I looked behind me in shock only to discover a girl clad in green. She looked roughly the age of 21, with soft curves all over her body and a soothing smile weaved on her lips. She was, no doubt, the most beautiful woman I had ever seen in my life. Even the Gerudo were put to shame by her. Her hair, even greener than Saria's, shimmered and glowed around her, cut short so that it only reached her shoulders. She wore a silk dress, yellow like the sun and fair like a clear day.

"Wh-Who are you?" I stammered.

"I am Farore," the woman replied rather calmly.

"Farore..." I repeated, spellbound.

"Goddess of Courage and Secrets. I've been watching you for a long, long time, Hero of Time." She smiled a smile that challenged the very shining sun. "And never before have I seen somebody display such courage." I glanced at Twinrova. She was dumbfounded, and a look of great worry crossed her wrinkled face. "I think your courage and spirit deserves to be rewarded," the goddess continued. She waved her hand gently across the air, and with a jump I realized something solid was materializing in my hands. Looking down, I grinned as I saw the familiar gleam of the Master Sword, and my reflection in the helpful Mirror Shield, both once again by my side. My hand stopped glowing.

"Thank you," I said, peering back up into Farore's eyes. They filled me with more hope and resolve than I could have dreamed of. "For everything."

"Evil times are not over yet. Remember, though, that I will always be at your side." Her image began to vanish. "Farewell... My child..." There was a bright flash of light, and her body tore apart into thousands of butterflies, all flying towards the heavens.

"Link!" I was almost startled to see Navi fluttering above my shoulder. I couldn't remember seeing her after I got back up from the roof. "Don't drop your guard, Link! We still have to end this!" Just like Navi, always bringing me back to reality. My attention shifted to Twinrova, who stood at the opposite end of the building looking quite flustered.

"Don't think you can kill me with the help of the weakest of goddesses," she warned, edging back to the end of the roof. She was looking and sounding older by the minute. There was no more air of a young maiden in her voice.

"I can see you shivering," I growled. "Now pay for what you've done!" With a yell of rage I charged towards the witch with my sword and shield held high, prepared to end her life once and for all. Contrary to my plans, however, she did what I least expected—she stayed put.

"Just one minute," she grinned. It was an evil look only Lady Morpha could match. All at once, I saw bad things on the horizon. I slowed my ascent, growing increasingly cautious. A green wispy flame lit in mid-air beside the witch and vanished, revealing a strange device with a sort of switch on it. "One more move, and I press this button. Do you know where my army is? They are at the doorstep to your beloved Lost Woods, torches ready to burn all the wretched weeds down. I can't have your pathetic people escape my dominion; if you so want to kill them, though, I'd be happy to change my mind." She glared. "So what will it be?" she demanded loudly. "Give up now, or my army will invade and destroy your pathetic excuse for a home and everything who lives there!"

I hesistated. What was I to do? Any attempt to strike the device out of her hands would result in my entire forest being wiped off the map; but the world would be doomed anyway if I just gave up and died on the spot.

"I'm waiting," Twinrova ushered. "Make your decision. NOW!"

I nodded. "Go ahead, press that button."

"Wh-What?"

"Press it."

"But your whole people will die the instant I press it!"

I gulped. This had to be the right way; it had to, or I'd made the worst error of my life. "Then press it. And then let's finish this." I stepped forward.

"Get back!" she cried, taking a step back. "I warn you, I'll press it!"

"You're a coward, Twinrova," I said darkly. "A coward. No matter how powerful you claim to be, you've hid behind your henchmen, not to mention your own son, for years. Instead of coming out and showing some spirit, you've used others to protect you. Everything I've done from the moment I stepped into the Spirit Temple up until now has been constant delays, delays that could have been done away with if you were truly powerful enough to put an end to me immediately. You've been biding your time, searching for an escape route, and now you're hiding behind it too. Quit trying to get me to give up, because I won't. A hero never gives up, whether he's afraid or not. Admit it, Twinrova!"

"That's it!" She slammed her finger down on the switch. "Captain? OBLITERATE!" There was a crackly noise, but no answer. "Captain?" she repeated. "Captain!? WHY AREN'T YOU ANSWERING!?" Twinrova eyed me with wide, fearful eyes, like a cat when cornered. "YOU! What have you done!?"

"It isn't what I've done," I answered, glad that my hunch was right. For the same reason as in the Civil War, the Lost Woods was untouchable. "You may not have known, but when I killed off that 'birthday present,' a new Deku Tree was born."

"A new _what_!?"

"That's right," I grinned. "Your whole army has been pulverized."

"_Impossible_!" she cried, hurling the gadget into the oblivion void.

"Now you have nothing to hide behind," I asserted. "Farore has no respect for cowardly women, and that is why I've triumphed again. Admit it, Twinrova! You are and always have been a coward!"

"No, you're wrong!" Madame Dragmire snapped. "WRONG!" The witch flung her hands to her sides, and with an explosion of fire and ice her body shot into the air. Her hair had undergone a total transformation, and one lock was now chaotic fire while the other was jagged ice. Her hands glowed an eerie white, and in them she held what looked like two juggling sticks. One was completely lit aflame; the other was enveloped in what I could only recognize as Blue Fire. "How dare you call me a coward!" she cried. "You shall pay dearly for this outrage!" If I didn't know better, I would have thought she had doubled in size. It was really quite intimidating. Without hesitating, she rose her right hand back and whipped it forward. From her wand launched a great blast of fire, with such force that the wind around it seemed to be ripped apart.

Unfazed though, and knowing Farore, Navi, and Saria would all be there for me, I stood my ground, shield held high. The blast hit so hard that it pushed me back to the edge of the roof once again; but the fire itself, I was pleased to see, was absorbed by my shield. "This truly is a bizarre shield," I exclaimed, awing at how no matter what the situation, it always seemed to come in handy.

"No... NO!" If I didn't know better, I would have thought the sorceress was in denial. "That wretched shield, it can't be! Nothing can withstand my magic!" she roared in frustration. "NOTHING!" With a scream she whipped another fireball at me, and again it was devoured by the mirror on my shield. My shield began glowing a fiery red.

Suddenly and unexpectedly, my shield trembled and BAM! The kickback nearly disjointed my shoulder as a ferocious beam of fire (comparable to that of Koume's in the least) erupted from the mirror. "What in the world!?" I exclaimed.

Not wasting time to wonder in amazement, I hurriedly slammed my arm to the left, directing the beam right at Twinrova. She immediately lifted her left hand and emitted a blast of blue fire. The fire connected with my own, and for the briefest of moments we were in a gridlock, before Madame Dragmire waved her hand and vaporized both beams. I could see, though, that her left leg had been singed and that she wasn't happy at all about that. "This can't be happening!" she boomed. "It's _impossible_! That godforsaken shield!"

In anger she launched another fireball at me. Instinctively I flung up my shield to catch it, but to my surprise it bypassed me altogether—and ran straight into Navi. There was a sharp shriek, and suddenly my fairy companion was no longer at my side. "Navi?" I screamed. "NAVI!" I looked over the edge of the temple. There, lying motionless on the Arbitra statue's head, was a small bluish glow. I prayed to the goddesses that she was merely unconscious. I realized to my horror that Navi was a mere inch away from falling off the statue and into oblivion. I had to save her!

A great wall of ice appeared before I could get to a spot where I could jump onto the statue, blocking my way. "Not so fast, Hero of Time," Madame Dragmire snickered from above. "I'm not done with you yet!" She fired another beam of blue fire, this time at me. I absorbed it with my shield.

"Is that the best you can do!?" I accused. There might only be seconds before Navi fell over the edge.

"Of course not," Twinrova countered with an unpleasant smile. She rose both of her hands into the air, and with a great crash a gigantic boulder slammed down from the heavens and shattered on the roof. Soon after another landed, and another, and to my horror I looked up to see a rain of meteors flying in my direction.

But she wouldn't have me that easily. Death Mountain had been enough training for this. I judged the shadows of the falling balls of fire and dodged meteor after meteor. How long would it be, though, before they ended?

Suddenly, something hit my left arm hard. I darted my eyes all too late to see my Master Sword flying away once again, landing on the edge of the roof opposite of Navi. It too wouldn't last long. Suddenly, all of Farore's help seemed to be naught; I couldn't banish her evil spirit without that sword! Twinrova seemed to know it too, gleefully laughing and priding over her well-placed kick as she flew around in the air.

I tried to run for my most powerful of weapons, but before I could get there Twinrova suddenly appeared in my way. Less then a second after I was faced with a rapidly approaching beam of fire. I flung my Mirror Shield up to protect myself; indeed it absorbed it, but to my dismay the previous blue fire seemed to dispel itself into nothing. She had figured out how to cancel out my shield's power, and she knew it.

With a great smile on her face, she took advantage of my momentary shock to kick me hard in my all-too-injured stomach. I got to my feet just in time to absorb another blast of fire, but it was so close that I could smell the putrid odor of my front-most hairs burning. Again I tried to run for my sword, this time in a different angle, but time and time again I was blocked by the astral queen and sent away, either by a cancelling-out blast of magic or by her own powerful foot. I was learning, though, and rather than waste the two blasts I already had stored up on my shield I avoided her flurry of blue fire as best I could.

My growing lack of sensation in my right elbow was the first sign, though, that something wrong had happened. With a quick peek to my arm, I saw the pale white sleeve covering my arm was burnt off, and the skin underneath it was purple. It was getting harder and harder to hold my Mirror Shield; my right arm was beginning to get frostbite, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

This was when Twinrova decided to do something new. With a great lash of her foot, my Mirror Shield was knocked out of my senseless hand and clanged loudly as it landed back near Navi. I looked desperately for some alternative; as I knew, though, there was none. She had me in her grasp. I could see it in her eyes. She knew. With great malice, she pulled back her right arm. I broke into a limping run as a bright flash of light appeared behind me. Pain roared up my leg—how many limbs did I injure without realizing? I felt myself slowing down more and more, the fire approaching faster and faster... And then a voice screamed in my head, "Link, run!" It was so pained, so desperate that I couldn't tell whose it was. That didn't make any difference to the voice, however, and it insisted, "Run! Hurry!"

That voice drove me on, as familiar and yet unfamiliar as it was, and with the fire less than a yard away from me, I reached the Mirror Shield, flipped forward in the air, seized it with my left hand, and directed it towards the blast of fire. "_No!_" Madame Dragmire cried. "NOOOO!" This time, my _left_ shoulder was almost dislocated from the kickback as a spiraling beam of fire launched itself from the mirror, right towards the Gerudo queen.

Twinrova reacted with a rushed beam of blue fire, but she was so caught off guard that my fire shot straight through her's and engulfed her entire body. She screamed and collapsed on the ground, charred and burnt by her own magic. Though she tried to get up, she couldn't. And now I had my chance. In one single, fluid motion, I ran to the other end of the roof, seized the Master Sword, held it above my head, and plunged the glowing blade into the screeching witch's forehead.

"_NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!_" the fiery, cold witch cried, her scream booming and echoing like thunder all across the desert. Orange and blue flames erupted around her and in front of me, and I shielded my eyes with my arms. The witch's cries died with the fire, and when I removed my arms, Madame Dragmire was no more.

My time was not to be wasted in rejoicing. In the new silence that now crept its way across the entire world from my very spot, I left the bloodied Master Sword in its place by the vile sorceress and ran as fast as I could to the part of the roof overlooking Arbitra's head. There, just barely holding on, was my beloved fairy. I jumped down onto the stone head and seized the little fairy as quickly as I could. As I did, I saw that the swirling black vortex was gone, and in the pinkish-purple down painting its joys onto the Haunted Wasteland I could clearly see the paradise of the Desert Colossus shining back at me from down below. I held Navi in my hands delicately. "Navi," I whispered worriedly, "are you alright?"

At first there was no answer. Then, just barely, I saw her tiny wings twitch. "L-Link...? Is that... Is that you?"

"Yes, it's me," I cooed. "You'll be alright. It's over now." Very carefully I slipped her in the pocket of my tunic and climbed my way back onto the roof to collect my sword. There, to my surprise, stood a tall Gerudo whose nose looked like it stuck itself into other people's business. "Nabooru?" I gasped, though it was a quiet gasp more like a sharp intake of air.

She stood above the spot where Twinrova had laid, looking down at the charred black roof. The dry desert wind blew her long hair so that it was completely horizontal, perpendicular to her bronze head. "The greatest Gerudo to ever live... And yet the greatest evil to ever befall our race. She'd been controlling us since before I was born—even her own son. All those battles... They were just a game of her's, weren't they? A sick game, where only she could be the winner." For a moment it looked like she was about to choke, and suddenly teardrops burst forth from her watchful eyes. Nabooru crying was an unusual and very contradictory sight. "All the people who died to make this woman happy... It's inexcusable!" She spat on the black circle. "May Majora torment your soul, foul witch of the desert."

I approached the proud Gerudo slowly, not sure what to make out of it. Last time I saw her, she had been killed. "Nabooru, what...? Why? How?" I could only stammer.

"That wasn't me you fought, kid," Nabooru smiled, trying to be positive and wipe away her tears. "I was too valuable to her to be disposed of so easily. That was my clone." She held up her right hand. It was full of color, and when she flexed it I could see each individual bone and muscle doing its part to bring the hand life. "See? I'm perfectly fine." I gawked. "But that's not all... While I was dormant in the Tomb of Sorrow, I was visited by some old Hylian man. He told me... He said..." I nodded. Nabooru rubbed her arm awkwardly. "This is a bit overwhelming even now, kid. But... He said that I was a spirited leader, a determined woman, and the finest of all the Gerudo. Do you know what he told me? He told me I was something called a..."

"...Sage of Spirit," I finished, taking her by surprise.

"What? You know about that stuff?"

I grinned. It was a happy, honest grin. Perhaps there was something that I knew after all that Nabooru didn't. Her expression was priceless as I explained myself. "You're the reason I came to the desert. I've been looking for the Sage of Spirit for quite a while now."

Nabooru didn't know what to say. "Well, now... You've...you've been looking for me, have ya kid? What... What did you say your name was again?"

"Link," I smiled. It was the biggest smile I had ever made in my entire life, and every bit of it was sincere. "Hero of Time." For the first time, I was proud of my name.

"Well, Link, I believe I owe you an apology. Until I met you I thought men were worthless piles of cow manure; you've shown me to be quite the contrary. Perhaps when this is over, we Gerudo should change how quickly we judge people." I laughed. "No, seriously, kid. And I want to give you something... A promise that we'll change."

"What do you mean?"

"With Madame Dragmire gone, Ganondorf is the only evil left. I'm sure he can't stand against somebody as powerful as you; Twinrova far outweighs Ganondorf." Now _she_ laughed. "Unless he's some monster or something deep down inside."

"I'll be looking forward to finding out," I nodded, sitting myself down on the edge of the Spirit Temple. The sun would reach the horizon any minute now, and I wanted to see a true, untainted desert sunrise like the kind in picture books. It was funny that the sun would rise in the same direction as the dark fortress near the Temple of Time. "That's my next stop, anyway. Ganon's castle, I mean."

"Good luck, kid," Nabooru grinned, looking out at the horizon with me. "He's one tough egg to crack. Madame Dragmire's got brains, but the Great Ganondorf has something we can't yet explain. Keep your eyes open; I'm sure he's got some tricks up his sleeve. In any case, that fool's probably fuming right now."

"He was never supposed to rule, you know," I said quietly.

"What?"

"She told me; his mother, I mean. The only reason she didn't kill him already was because he was supposed to kill Princess Zelda for her. He could have been a good king. His mother just raised him to be bad."

"Dang... She really was a monster, wasn't she?"

I nodded. "I almost feel guilty that I'm going to have to kill him. Whatever connects the princess, Ganondorf, and I... Why did one of them wind up evil while the other two were good? I don't know what connects us... But I think that if he hadn't been king, if Twinrova hadn't brainwashed him... We could have been friends."

"Don't get sentimental on me, kid," Nabooru grumbled. "Anyway, as I was saying, Ganondorf's all that's left of the Dragmire Dynasty. Once he's dead, I'll be in charge of the Gerudo. And once I'm in charge, I can guaruntee you my people will change their ways. Twinrova turned Hyrule against us; I'm going to try to undo that."

"It's hard to believe our people were once friends," I mused. "I feel like all this time the Gerudo were the great enemy I've been fighting. It's nice to know that I was wrong."

"Madame Dragmire had us all taught as children that Hylians were demons, capable only of devastating the world until they are as rich as possible. I'm glad to know that there are Hylians like you who fight in the name of peace, not money. And I have something for you. Remember what I was saying about a promise?"

I got back up. "Oh yes! I remember."

"What is it, what is it?" Navi chirped.

The future Gerudo queen dug in her pocket and pulled out a large orange disc. A symbol I had seen in some textbooks Saria had in her house was engraved on it. "That's the symbol of this temple," Nabooru explained, "before Madame Dragmire took over. She always said it just symbolized the eternal battle between good and evil. But I did some research on it, and found out it meant something different entirely. It symbolizes how what side we choose is only a title; we are all deep down the same people, it's just whether we choose to be noble or wicked that defines who we are. If you have spirit, and challenge those defining rules, you can re-unite conflicting people and bring about understanding." She held the disc out to me. "Link, as thanks for saving our people and kingdom, and as a promise from me to change my people's ways for the better, take this Spirit Medallion and vanquish Ganondorf once and for all!"

I took it gratefully. "Thank you for all your help, Nabooru," I smiled. "I hope you succeed in your mission; maybe we can meet again one day, but on happy terms rather than hostile." I looked down at my gauntlets. "Do you still want these Silver Gauntlets?"

"Nah," she scoffed. "You can keep 'em, kid. I don't need them any more."

"You guys, look, look!" Navi called. The two of us turned our heads just in time to see the most golden and beautiful of all suns rise from the desert horizon, sparkling and shining with such vigor that I had never seen before. The whole desert seemed to burst into life, and even the oasis beneath us seemed more vibrant than ever. It was a truly rejuvenating sight to behold, and I'd never forget that glorious sunrise until the day I'd die.

"I've always thought you Gerudo had the best sunrises," said a voice behind us. To my surprise, Shiek and Impa stood just behind us, watching the sun rise too.

"We'll be lucky if we see another sunrise," Shiek sighed. "Though I'm looking forward to giving Ganondorf a taste of what he deserves."

"I'm sure you'll see another sunrise, girl. With this kid's help, nothing could go wrong," Nabooru laughed, patting me hard on the back.

Navi and I were rather shocked. "_Girl_!?" we gasped.

"What you think I can't tell a girl when I see one?" The Gerudo laughed even harder. "Link, you're the only male for miles!"

I stared at Shiek incredulously. "What is she talking about?" I demanded.

Impa's pupil blushed. "Well," he answered in the most feminine voice I had ever heard, "I've been meaning to tell you this for a while. I just couldn't as long as we were under Ganondorf's watchful eye; we're safe here, though." I gawked. Shiek stepped forward and took my hand. With his (her?) other hand, he (she?) unraveled the bandages around his (her?) face. In seconds, where a boy's face had stared at me moments before now lay a woman's delicate face. Nothing in the caliber of attractiveness that Saria, Ruto, Malon, and Nabooru all enjoyed, but decent enough to be called beautiful. It was uncannily familiar, though.

"Wh-Who _are_ you?" I stammered, nearly stepping backwards and falling off the roof.

"Princess Zelda, at your service," the Princess of Destiny smiled.

"By Farore's Book..."

"I'm sorry for my secrecy; I'll explain later, when this is all done. But I just want to say... I'm sorry for how I've treated you earlier. The riddles, the rudeness... I was just mad that you vanished, I didn't know what truly happened until Rauru told me moments before you came out of your coma—and then I just couldn't believe it was you. But I know it was wrong of me now... I hope you can forgive me!"

"I forgive you," I sighed. Now wasn't the time for quarrels.

"Talk about a much-needed reunion," Navi remarked thoughtfully. "Come to think of it though, you've changed a lot since that coma. I'm really glad I was able to be there every bit of the way."

I chuckled. "Thanks. I love you, Navi."

"Same to you!" she giggled, giving me a light peck on the cheek and blushing. We all laughed after that. I'd never felt happier. I'd look back on that golden morning for years to come.

She was right, of course. Looking back, I really had changed. When I had woken from my coma I was a confused adult who missed that age where kids are supposed to figure out who they are; I was sick of myself and sick of the world. But I came to terms with myself, and thanks to Saria I even found something to look forward to, something to motivate me. No matter what I was, she'd love me; love need not be between members of the same race. I still remembered that. And it was thanks to Epona and Darunia that I really found out what it meant to have friends, always there for you and helping you when you need it most. I learned death could be a painful, agonizing event, but I'd matured enough that I could get over it, and get on with my life—something Ruto and I went through together. Impa and the people of Kakariko Village taught me just how fine of a line there is between friends and enemies, and though I now know that everybody has the capability of being bad, I know people are able to make that choice even when the gods try to make it their decision. I'd gone from a fragile, emotional kid to a mature, spirited adult who could deal with the hardships in life with a smile on my face. Perhaps, if I could survive a transformation such as that, Ganondorf wouldn't be so bad of an ordeal after all. I even smiled when I thought of it.

And so the five of us watched the sun ascend in the sky—Navi, Impa, Zelda, Nabooru, and I. For so long, my destiny had been uncertain, sometimes seeming bright and sometimes bad, elusive not unlike a phantom. Yet today my destiny finally came to a decision, and I knew it was a good one. Today would be a good day—we were sure of it. Hyrule would be won.

-

"Link, where are we going?" Saria asked as we pushed our way through a particularly dense part of the forest. "I've... I've never seen this part of the forest before. I'm... I'm a bit scared."

"Don't be frightened, Saria," I comforted. "I'm here. I just have to see something. I just need to know if it's all true."

"Whatever you say, but I don't like it," she grumbled in that mature way she always did. "What if we leave the forest?"

"That's exactly what I intend to do."

"What!?"

"Remember what I said? You'll be safe, just trust me. You won't die if you step out of the forest." I squeezed her hand. I'd never let something like that happen to her.

"Alright..." she huffed. "I trust you."

We finally stepped out of the forest. It was a cloudy day, and Hyrule Field was as grim as ever. Saria awed at how few trees there were, and how differently the air smelled. I rememered with a wry grin how I reacted the same way when I first left the Lost Woods. But I wasn't just there to show Saria Hyrule Field. I searched and searched, until at last I found a small alcove shielding a bit of land from the rest of the countryside. The earth there was bare, the soil so deteriorated that no plant could ever hope to grow on it again. There was one thing, however, that existed in that dead land. In the darkest corner, was the charred remains of a small cabin. I held Saria tight and cried.

* * *

**A Note from the Author:** And so it ends. I hope you enjoyed it! If you want something fun to do, go back and look for all the Oracle Series references in this chapter; there are loads of them (i.e. Facade in the Cavern of Destruction, when Facade is a mini-boss in Onyx's Castle in Oracle of Seasons). For a hint, most Seasons references are in the Cavern of Destruction, while most Ages references are in the Tomb of Sorrow.

The Wizrobes are there because I've always thought every boss in Ocarina of Time (Wind Waker too) was sort of a "bigger version" of a Zelda enemy. Bongo Bongo's a "big Wallmaster," Queen Gohma's a "big Gohma," even Morpha is a "big Gel," and I've seen Twinrova as a "big Wizrobe," so the Wizrobes in the Temple of Despair represent that.

And for those who love big secrets and couldn't guess, most of this chapter took place in the Dark World.

Kingdom Hearts music was a big inspiration for everything Temple of Despair forward, especially "Destati." Try listening to "End of the World" while reading the temple part.

For those who enjoyed the series and want more, the Majora's Mask saga is underway. The _Shadow Apocalypse_ series has begun with Sovereign Swamped, which's second chapter is well underway. I hope you enjoyed _Dark Mind_, and I'm excited to see you guys in the _Shadow Apocalypse_!

Reviews are greatly appreciated. If you have any questions about anything, I'll be glad to answer them too.


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